Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea
by Lord PotterXXVII
Summary: What if a more intelligent Harry took more offence to Fleur's comment after his selection in the Triwizard tournament. What if Harry took some rather unusual steps to prove his worth to her resulting in some rather unexpected results. What if Harry found a more efficient way to fight Voldemort. Not a threesome pairing, minor Ron bashing, major Dumbledore bashing.
1. Prolougue

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note: I thought I'd try my hand at one of my favorite alternate pairings of all, but try and dodge the usual life debt in the lake, or meeting at the world cup scenario and come up with something completely different. I love Harry/Fleur but there's hardly any good fics with plausible scenarios that have actually been completed or totally ruined by certain plot elements. What would happen if a more intelligent Harry took more offence to Fleur's reaction to his selection as Champion? What if Harry took some rather creative action to prove himself in her eyes as well as fighting Voldemort? To pre-empt a few comments, I already know the Latin in this probably isn't perfect, as I took it from Google translate._

Prologue: Of Dreams and Princesses

' _leetle boy,_ ' seethed Harry as he brooded in his bed that night, his brain refusing to let go of the utter humiliation he had suffered only hours ago. Even Ron's subsequent betrayal and refusal to believe him hardly mattered in comparison. His jealously and narrow mindedness was at least partly predictable if unwelcome, at least Hermione still believed in him and could understand why he didn't want to participate. But the sting of this insult…..

' _The one person I meet who didn't stare or make any fuss over who I am, and she refused to see the truth, or apologize even after I made a magical oath?'_

After a few hours tossing and turning, Harry gave up on the idea of sleep for the time being and pulled out his invisibility cloak and the Marauders map. Quietly activating the enchanted parchment Harry scanned the surface gazing at the names, most were in their quarters including the few Harry had no desire to meet in the night. Getting out of bed, Harry crossed to the window and gazed down to where he knew the carriage which had brought the witch to Hogwarts now rested.

' _I'll show her, I'll show her if it's the last thing I do.'_

With his mind made up, Harry walked out of the dormitory and into the corridor. The fat lady was not amused to be woken up but Harry promised he wouldn't be long and she begrudgingly promised not to say anything.

'You're too much like your father for your own good Harry, I know that look, and I remember it well from his sixth year. I don't know who she is, but try not to get carried away with whatever you do to win her favour.'

Harry left, rather startled by the revelation and headed down the corridors, but soon came up short when he saw a door that wasn't on the map. The only visible landmark he recognized being a painting of man trying to train trolls to dance. Opening the room, Harry was astonished to find a space decorated like the pictures he saw of ancient temples. A lectern lay in the middle of the room with a book resting on top of it….

Curiosity propelling him forward, Harry opened the book and saw it was a grimoire of spells and rituals collated from the Greeks and Romans. Harry flicked through it, fascinated by the spells until he came to a ritual that was rather amazing in its effect.

 _The Plea of Morpheus_

 _The purpose of the holy plea was once to show the guilt or innocence of those accused of crimes committed. He who was accused could with the aid of the ritual show the truth of the events as recollected to the victim. The victim would them dream the events as though present to witness them. None could lie under the influence of the spell as the dreams were made directly from the mind of the one who projects them into the ritual…_

Harry was astonished at the discovery, somehow he had stumbled across exactly the sort of spell he needed to prove himself. The implications were somewhat of a dilemma though, he knew he could use this to prove he didn't go near the goblet but at what cost? Did Fleur really deserve to see into his mind?

The ritual did not look complicated and indeed everything he needed was already present in the room…..

After a time, Harry decided. ' _Maybe this will showed the spoiled princess just how much of a "leetle boy" I am not, it doesn't look like it will actually hurt her if it was a holy ritual used by priests to show people the truth.'_

Harry drew a pentagram around the stone basin called for in the ritual and lit fires at each point of the star. Drawing his wand and holding it forth he began to chant the incantation…

' _Mea memoria depromere,'_

' _in somnis mihi reflexione excurrere.'_

' _Ut deorum iudicat in veritate mea.'_

' _Mica somniorum veritate mea autem Fleur Delacour!'_

Harry held his wand to his temple and began to draw forth the memories he desired to show her, beginning with a few of the better memories of the Dursleys, followed by each and every one of his adventures that had happened so far at Hogwarts. Finally he finished with the memories of the days leading up to the drawing of the champions to show he had never even touched the goblet of fire.

Holding his wand over the basin which was now full of a swirling substance that looked to be neither liquid nor gas, Harry cast the last part of the ritual.

' _O Potens delevit veritatis visione clara nomine, qui reum condemnaret!'_

There was a wave of magic that released in a golden flash of light, the basin emptying and the fires dying out instantly as Harry smiled at his success, and meanwhile less than a kilometre away, a witch named Fleur Delacour fell into a much deeper sleep…..

The next morning, Harry felt surprisingly calm despite the turbulence of the day before. Even though the majority of the students eyes seemed as hostile as before, if not more so, the fact he had done something that could help to clear his own name made him feel all the better. As Hermione led him out of the castle, he thought he even caught a glimpse of Fleur going in, her face clearly showing remorse and sadness as she caught his eyes.

Hermione seemed to know something was up, and soon enough she asked.

'What is going on? Last night you looked terrible, but now, you look so calm. I remember second year, before I was petrified. You never looked this calm when everyone was accusing you of being the heir.'

Harry smiled, 'I never could get anything past you could I?'

Hermione blushed, 'no.'

'Last night I couldn't sleep, so I ended up going for a walk and I found a hidden room, inside it I found a book of rituals used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to divine the truth.'

Hermione looked shocked, 'oh Harry you didn't? If you'd been caught…'

Harry shook off her concern, 'I had the map and the cloak, and in this case the need was too great to ignore.'

'Hermione was silent for a long time before she finally asked, 'you obviously did something, but what? What did you do, which ritual did you cast?'

'The plea of Morpheus.'

Hermione was astonished, 'you found a copy of the ritual? And you got it to work successfully?'

'Yes and yes, you know about it?'

'I remember reading about it, the instructions for it were lost centuries ago. But if you did it, why is Ron the same? Unless you didn't use it on him, but if nor Ron, then who?'

Harry smiled, 'I used it on Fleur, The Beauxbatons champion.'

'What, why?'

Harry frowned, 'you didn't hear her last night, leetle boy she called me. Even after I gave a magical oath she didn't apologize. The one magical person I have ever met in my entire life who didn't stare at my scar or make a fuss about my name, even only at first. I thought that if I could at least show her the truth about me, it would make all the rest a little easier to bare. Malfoy, Ron, the Hufflepuffs, all the others. Most of the people around here are sheep and I can understand their reactions even if I don't like them. But for her, to throw it all back in my face the way she did, she had no right to do that.'

Hermione looked almost in tears as she pulled Harry into a hug and as she said.

'Oh Harry that's awful, if you'd only told me earlier I would have helped you and your right, she had absolutely no right to act like she did. Spoiled airhead looking down on everyone, what did you show her?'

'Everything, everything that was even slightly out of the ordinary that's ever happened here over the time we've been here. Plus a few of the more tolerable memories of the Dursleys.'

'Hermione was shocked, 'oh Harry you didn't? She'll be having nightmares for weeks.'

'Who said the truth is always nice? Besides, it'll probably do her good to be dragged out of whatever pretty tower her family's kept her in.'


	2. Chapter 1

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note:_

Chapter 1: The Beginning

A few days had passed since Harry had cast the ritual and while the rest of the school was as spiteful as ever, Fleur seemed to have mellowed. While she had not approached him, he had noticed her gaze on him a few times. Breakfast that day proved a trial as Harry noticed many people in the great hall sporting bright red badges with the slogan.

 _Support Cedric Diggory_

 _The Real Hogwarts Champion._

It turned out that Malfoy was behind them as when he arrived for potions that day he found the blonde waiting for him along with his usual gang.

'Like them Potter? That's not all they do, check this out.'

He pressed his finger into the badge and Harry watched as the badges changed to read.

 _Potter Stinks_

The nearby gang laughed before Harry sighed.

'Oh how clever, for an 8 year old Malfoy, so I stink do I? Well I can take a shower to solve that problem. But there's nothing that can solve the fact that you're a spineless inbred moron who can't do anything for himself. What was it this time? Bribe some Ravenclaws to make these?'

Draco drew his wand, 'filthy halfblood, I'll show you to respect your betters.'

Harry laughed as he drew his own wand, 'my betters? You? In your dreams.'

Draco screamed, ' _Densaugeo!'_ just asHarry calmly snapped off a quick disarming charm and watched as the spells hit in mid-air and deflected. Harry's hitting Goyle in the chest and blasting him into Pansy sending both to the floor while Hermione was struck in the face.

Snape arrived to an uproar and docked Gryffindor thirty points before herding the class into the dungeon. Harry found it hard to concentrate on the lesson, his concern for Hermione eating into his concentration. Collin Creevey provided a surprising distraction when he burst into the room and passed a message requesting Harry's presence. Snape was reluctant to let Harry go but finally gave in, and Harry was almost grateful for the tournament as he hurried upstairs.

He followed Collin to a room where Ludo Bagman was speaking with a blonde witch dressed in violet. Fleur and Cedric were in conversation, though he did notice their gaze on him and wondered if they were talking about him, while Viktor was in a corner by himself.

Ludo looked up, 'ah, here he is, champion number four, in you come Harry. Nothing to worry about, just the wand weighing ceremony, the others will be here any moment.'

Ludo explained the procedure and introduced Rita Skeeter, Harry finally laying eyes on the woman who he knew by reputation to be one of the most infamous reporters in Britain. She soon asked for an interview in in a stroke of either inspiration or madness he said.

'Yes, but on one condition, you report exactly what I say, word for word, no quick quotes quill. You want my story, fine. But it's time somebody wrote it properly, alright.'

Rita seemed to consider Harry's offer before saying, 'fine.'

'Good, come on then.'

Harry walked outside and quickly found an empty room and began.

'Fire away then Rita.'

Harry returned to the room with the others, after telling his side of the story so far to Rita, explaining how she had been entered and how few believed him even after he had sworn a magical oath. Rita looked quite pleased by the end and promised publication as soon as possible. Dumbledore was waiting with a wizard Harry had only seen once before, Ollivander the wand maker.

Ollivander bade Fleur to come up first and Harry listened as Ollivander began.

'Hmm, interesting,' he twirled it carefully and saw the pink and gold sparks, 'Rosewood, nine and a half inches and containing….'

Fleur explained, 'a hair from ze 'ead of a veela, one of my grandmuzzers.'

Ollivander continued, 'A core I have never used myself, I find it makes for quite temperamental wands.'

He used the wand to conjure roses and gave them to Fleur along with her wand before he continued with Viktor and Cedric before finally calling.

'Harry Potter, come here please.'

Harry walked up to Ollivander and passed his wand to the old man and listened as he said.

'Aaah yes, how well do I remember this wand.'

Harry remembered the day all too vividly when he walked into the shop and tried almost every wand the old man had in the store before finally being chosen by the wand he now carried.

'Eleven inches, holly and containing the feather of a phoenix. Probably one of my finest creations this wand and I can see it has been used well and… Oh my, how interesting.

Ollivander used the wand to produce a fountain of wine before passing it back and saying, 'would you object if I were to send a letter to you, your wand is in fine condition but I believe with a little help you could be capable of some truly astonishing things.'

Harry shivered, the man giving off that slightly odd vibe he remembered for when he bought his wand.

Rita insisted on photos which took a while as there was a lot of shuffling around as Bozo kept trying to get Fleur to the forefront much to her dislike and Madam Maxine tended to drown everybody else out. Eventually it was over and Harry turned to leave the room and began to head down to the great hall. However before he'd gotten very far he felt himself being grabbed from behind, he tried to struggle but found the grip too strong to escape from.

'I'm sorry for zis mon Chevalier but I must do eet, for both our sakes.'

He recognized the voice immediately, but before he could shake off her grip he heard her whisper strange words in a language he had no understanding of. As if in a daze he felt himself being turned around. Saw the look of intense concentration on her face and saw her hand, a blue glow in her palm as she thrust it forward and struck him in the chest. The spell, if that's what it was knocked him back and he felt her lower him to the floor gently and felt her breath in his ear as she whispered to him.

'I am so sorry 'Arry, I 'ad no idea of just how noble you truly are, please forgive me….'

He blacked out and the next thing he noticed was the feeling of starched sheets and the familiar disinfectant smell of the Hospital wing.

'Ahh Mr Potter, I do believe this beats your record. So what was it this time?'

Harry sat up and looked over at Madam Pomfrey, he wasn't sure how to explain what happened and strangely had no desire to get Fleur in trouble after she'd finally apologized and so shrugged and said.

'No idea, somebody grabbed me from behind and the next thing I remember was waking up in here. They must have stunned me or something'

Madam Pomfrey sighed, 'I wish Albus would do something about all these fights in the hallways, but whatever hit you was no stunning spell. I have never seen anything like it before.'

Harry looked alarmed, ' _Oh crap, what did she do to me?'_

His alarm must have shown on his face and so Madam Pomfrey continued, 'don't worry, whatever it was doesn't seem to have hurt you, in fact my scans show you're actually more healthy than before. So as long as you're feeling alright you can go after you've had something to eat.'

'Who found me and how long was I out?'

'Albus found you, and it's been a few hours, you just missed dinner I'm afraid.'

She brought out a platter of food that Harry ate hungrily, his missing lunch pushing his appetite to near Ron's level. Once he'd finished, he left the hospital wing and was cornered by Hermione once he got back to the common room. She drew him to a less crowded corner of the space and hissed.

'What happened to you? The most absurd rumours have been flying around all day, people have been saying the Hufflepuffs put you in the hospital.'

Harry shrugged, 'well it wasn't the Hufflepuffs, and actually it was Fleur. Don't really know what she did to me, but she said something weird when she grabbed me.'

Hermione was astonished, 'What? Why would she do that, it doesn't make any sense.'

'I know, she called me "Her Chevalier", and she even apologized. She said something really strange though, she said that she had to do it for both our sakes.'

Harry had seen Hermione surprised before but never to the extent showing now. She was struggling to form words and her eyes were wide with shock. Finally she choked out,

'Oh Harry, I don't know what is going on here, but be careful. Fleur must have a good reason for this, I'll check the library see if there's anything on Veela that might explain what she's up to.'

' _Same old Hermione, but that's what I love her for.'_

The task drew closer, Harry spending hour after hour in the library with Hermione studying past tournaments and their tasks in an attempt to figure out a plan for what was coming. Rita Skeeter had kept her word and when the Daily Prophet article about the tournament came out it included a section which contained Harry's interview. It helped to reduce the amount of angry mutterings but there were still a few of the _Support Cedric Diggory_ badges among his most vocal critics. Harry had begun to notice some strange occurrences that he privately thought had something to do with the spell Fleur had used on him. His appetite had increased, his magic seemed to be slowly growing stronger and a few recurring dreams involving foggy surroundings, snakes with red eyes being attacked by birds and a female figure never quite in plain sight had entered into his thoughts. A Hogsmeade trip was set about a week before the task and Harry and Hermione went, along with most of the school. Though Harry was attracting far less anger, he had his invisibility cloak close to hand in case he decided on an early exit. Upon entering the three broomsticks Harry noticed Hagrid deep in conversation with Professor Moody, the scarred ex auror walking away as Harry approached Hagrid after buying drinks for himself and Hermione.

'Harry, meet me at midnight tonight at me hut, wear yeh cloak.'

He left and Hermione asked.

'What was that about?'

Harry sipped his tankard of butterbeer before he commented,

'I don't know, but I've got a bad feeling about it.'

'Why?' Asked Hermione

'I'm not sure.'

So later on that night, after Ron managed to interrupt a floo call from Sirius and Harry managed to sneak down to Hagrid's hut he whispered

'You're ere, good, now I've got summat to show yeh, put yeh cloak on and keep quiet.'

Harry did as he said and followed him as he led the way towards the Beauxbatons carriage, he became a little annoyed as Hagrid picked up Madam Maxime and led the way seemingly on a romantic stroll, but as they passed the lake, Harry froze and almost fainted at the sight before him

Dragons, four huge vicious fire breathing dragons were rearing up on their hind legs and firing massive bursts of flame as they roared loudly in anger, thirty odd wizards were working to try and control them. Harry watched one of them break off and come up to Hagrid after they'd stunned the beats.

He recognized Charlie Weasley who described the dragons before he sighed.

Why they asked for nesting mothers I have no clue, but I'm really worried about what's going to happen once Harry faces this lot. I never had it in me to tell mum what's coming.'

Harry grinned and deciding that Hagrid probably wouldn't miss him, he left and hurried back up to the tower. Finally glad that at least he had a chance now he knew what was coming for him.


	3. Chapter 2

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note: Let me just say, WOW! 9 reviews in 24 hours. That is totally crazy and beyond belief as well as any expectations I had when I started posting this story up and is the best response I've ever seen to something I've written, so I guess I'm onto a winner here. Thanks to all of you who left reviews and favs/follows. That's just the motivation we all live for. I liked the points made in a few of the reviews that left feedback and those points are going to be covered later on in the course of the story, but I won't give out any spoilers. So just stay tuned for more._

Chapter 2: Here be Dragons

Harry awoke the morning after seeing the dragons full of determination. He was all but certain Cedric was the only champion who was going into the event without any warning or knowledge of what was coming. Deciding that he didn't deserve to go into a potential life or death situation unaware Harry waited until he saw Cedric finish his breakfast and then walked up to him, ignoring the few militant Hufflepuffs who were close to him.

'Cedric, a word? It's vital.'

Cedric nodded and followed Harry out into the entrance hall and then once he was sure nobody was nearby, he began.

'Cedric, the first task is dragons, and there's one for each of us.'

Harry saw him swallow nervously, the shock clear to his sight before he said.

'Are you sure? How do you know?'

Harry quickly began, 'I knew the task was likely to involve dangerous creatures, I did a bit of reading after the bloody stupid goblet spat my name out. But I knew for certain by last night when I got tipped off and went to see them. They're nesting mothers, really pissed off and freaking huge.'

Cedric looked pale and wasn't saying a word and so Harry continued. 'Madam Maxime knows and I think Karkaroff does too, and I've read just how corrupt the judges in this thing can be so I'd bet good money that Fleur and Viktor both know what's coming. The very least I can do is to give you an even chance, I don't think I could ever forgive myself if you got killed and I knew I could have saved you.'

Cedric smiled, 'thanks Harry, I really owe you for this.'

Harry waved him off, 'no problem, at least this way it's an even contest.'

Before Cedric could say another word, Professor Moody interrupted 'Potter a word, Diggory off you go.'

Harry walked away from Cedric and followed the grizzled man into his office which was filled with a whole heap of strange objects that the Professor explained were used to detect untrustworthiness and dark wizards. A tall mirror showed Harry the face of a young man, not entirely in focus but clear enough to see his straw coloured hair and prematurely aged features.

The ex auror settled into the chair behind his desk and said.

'So you found out about the dragons eh? Don't worry laddie,' he said as Harry's face began to look panicked, 'you're absolutely right about how corrupt the judges can be and I've been telling Albus that the whole time, but have you thought of what to do about the dragon?'

Harry took a deep breath, 'fighting a dragon one on one is suicide, I watched the dragon keepers last night and it took thirty of them to overcome just one of them. So I think the best way to do this would be to create some kind of distraction and then sneak past it somehow.'

Moody looked impressed, 'good thinking there Potter, Albus always spoke highly of you, and I can see he isn't mistaken in his praise. But the real trick here is to play to your strengths, you've got power, but what's the one thing that really sets you apart?'

Harry said, 'quidditch?'

Moody growled, 'that's right, now while you can't bring a broom, you can use a wand.'

It clicked to Harry what he was suggesting he should do and so and so he told Hermione later that day.

'That's a dangerous plan Harry, dragons are flying creatures. Yes, it could work as a backup plan but I'd try and think of something else as well.'

Harry had a sudden idea and said, 'Dragons are closely related to snakes so Parseltongue might work, or I could try and transfigure some rocks into animals or something.'

Hermione smiled, 'those are some clever ideas Harry, but you'll need to practise hard to make them work.

So Harry spent the remaining time before the task practising his plans, finding a few spell books and practising the spells he found to transfigure rocks and perfecting the summoning charm with Hermione's assistance. As the spells flowed with more precision over the time he spent practising, he felt his confidence grow. So much so that even Hermione commented on it,

'You know Harry, if you keep this up you might actually win this. You're getting a lot better at your precision and control. If you tried, I bet you could probably do a lot better in class as well.'

Harry looked thoughtful and said, 'something to think about for sure, maybe I'll switch out of Divination, take something better over the summer.'

In time the day of the task dawned and Harry felt his nerves increasing as the time ticked closer. Professor McGonagall came over as Harry finished lunch and said.

'Potter, the champions have to come down to the grounds to get ready for the first task.'

The professor looked just as nervous as Harry felt as she led him down towards the enclosure where a tent had been erected. Turning to face him she began,

'Now don't panic, we have wizards ready to handle the situation if it gets out of hand, just do your best and nobody will think the worst of you for it.'

Harry swallowed and walked into the tent where he found Ludo Bagman in his old quidditch robes looking rather cheerful standing amongst the champions who all looked scared. He bade the champions to gather round and told them all to take a model from a bag he was holding and when Harry's turn came, in a true display of Potter's law, he picked out the model of the Hungarian horntail.

' _Why do I get the most vicious one of the lot?'_

Ludo Bagman drew Harry aside and asked.

'Feeling alright Harry? Need anything? Got a plan worked out?'

Harry looked defiant, 'I know what I'm doing, thank you.'

' _What's he playing at trying to help me? If he wants a Hogwarts win, why hasn't he been talking to Cedric, unless he did it before?'_ Harry thought suspiciously.

Ludo Bagman left and soon Cedric was called out and what began was one of most anxious times of Harry's life as he listened to the commentary and the noise of the crowd as Cedric did whatever he was doing. Eventually with a roar and a torrent of cheers, Cedric finished and the scores were shown to the crowd.

Fleur had walked over and sat beside him as they listened and asked,

'Are you scared 'Arry?'

Harry saw the concern in her eyes and decided to be honest, 'I'd be lying if I said I wasn't Fleur.'

'Do you 'ave a plan?'

Harry smiled, 'yes, I've got several.'

'Bon, just… Be careful 'Arry, you don't deserve to be úrt for someone else's stupidity.'

Harry grinned, 'thanks.'

He felt her hand squeeze his as she got up when Ludo Bagman called her name.

'Good luck Fleur, and stay safe.'

She smiled at him as she left the tent, and Harry felt his heart lurch in concern as he watched her walk out.

The agony began again as Harry listened to what was going on, unable to see anything. Viktor was next and he seemed to go fairly well as Harry heard no groans from the crowd though the dragon didn't seem to be enjoying what was going on judging by the noise it was making. Finally after a time the crowd silenced and Harry heard the whistle, walking outside and feeling somewhat like a gladiator heading into the arena.

' _Hail Caesar! We who are about to die salute you.'_

At the other end of the enclosure sat the horntail, crouching low over her clutch of eggs, a glint of gold sticking out from among its granite coloured fellows.

The dragon looked him in in the eye and began to growl as Harry came closer, stopping just outside of flame range. Harry looked around and spotted the crowd, hundreds and hundreds of faces in a blur, all silent as the grave as they waited for him to cast his attack.

Harry concentrated, just as had been rehearsing for days preparing for this moment as he began to hiss.

' _Honourable dragon, one of the eggs you guard is false, please allow me to remove it for you.'_

The dragon locked eyes on him and hissed back.

' _Puny human, why are you any difference than the arrogant ones who humiliated us so._

' _Like you I have been forced into this contest. I have no desire to participate in this farce, they should not have involved you in such a way.'_

The crowd was shocked, few speaking at all as they watched Harry talk to the dragon.

' _The speech of serpents is a rare talent among humans and typically those who speak it are among the darkest users of magic. Yet I sense more about you little human, your aura is different to most speakers who have gone before you and most other humans who walk this world. A great capacity for goodness, and yet you have been touched by a great evil power, hatred and a will to dominate. Yet that evil is being slowly forced from your aura by another greater magic, as poison is drawn from a wound._

The dragon leaned forward slowly and seemed to size Harry up, judging him somehow to some measure unknown to him. He must have passed the test though as the dragon hissed.

' _End this game little one, take this fake from my nest and be done with this.'_

Trembling, Harry slowly walked forward feeling a morbid sense of familiarity as he remembered the day he first met Buckbeak the hippogriff. The closer he walked to the dragon, the bigger it seemed to get until it finally towered over him as he reached out and picked up the egg before retreating slowly out of flame range.

Turning to face the crowd he noticed that all of them were still shell shocked, none moving a muscle, no noise coming from even Ludo Bagman. Guessing he had done enough he snarled.

'Are you not entertained? You chain down sentient beasts like wild animals for fun? They want to be left in peace to look after their eggs and you force them here for entertainment. Take them away from here this minute!'

That seemed to break the spell that had gripped the crowd as Ludo Bagman addressed the audience, his usual jovial commentary style gone in the shock.

'Our youngest champion has retrieved the egg in the fastest time of the day and has escaped unharmed.

Turning to face Harry, Bagman began, 'I'll send our best man to get those dragons freed at once and they will all be escorted back to Romania at the first opportunity.'

Turning to the dragon, Harry said.

' _They're going to take you away from here. I'm sorry they did this but hopefully it will be the last time they involve dragons in such a humiliating way.'_

Harry walked away and was met by a stunned Professor McGonagall, a beaming Hagrid and a calculating Professor Moody.

'That was astonishing Potter, a true marvel of the age, your name will go down in history for this, who knew that Dragons can speak parseltongue?

Moody was much less overawed, 'nice and simple does the trick Potter.'

Hagrid pulled him into a massive hug before he choked out, 'yeh did it Harry, yeh proved dragons aren't mindless monsters and against a horntail too, yeh know Charlies said that was the wors.'

Harry finally broke loose and gasped, 'No problem, only now all the sheep will start thinking I'm a dark wizard again, it said a few interesting things too.'

Professor McGonagall seemed to regain her composure, 'right first aid tent, come on this way Potter.'

'But I'm not hurt Professor.'

Professor McGonagall smiled, 'no, but it'll be a little while before they put up your scores and you can keep Diggory company while you're waiting, Madam Pomfrey already had to patch him up.'

So Harry made his way into the tent where he found Cedric sitting on a bunk where Madam Pomfrey was attending to him, he didn't look to be badly hurt but one half of his face seemed to be covered in some sort of orange paste which looked to be mending burns.

He looked up and said jokingly.

'Nice work Harry, but how come you got the talkative dragon?'

Harry grinned, 'the dragons are obviously smarter than anybody knew, and aren't happy with most wizards, and I can sort of see why to be honest. Since being able to talk to them is such a rare gift, that's probably why nobody ever bothered to try and do that.'

Madam Pomfrey let Cedric go and he hurried off after waving goodbye and just as he left, Hermione hurried in, her face and hair were a mess, and her voice bore out just how worried she was as she threw herself into his arms.

'Oh Harry, that was unbelievable! I can't believe that actually worked, making you go up against that thing was just wrong in so many ways…'

Just as she drew away, Fleur hurried in and incredibly, she hugged him just as tightly as Hermione. Her face clearly showing just how scared she'd been as she looked him up and down as if scanning him for any injuries. Harry noticed that the fabric of her skirt looked a bit singed, as well as damp but otherwise she seemed unharmed.

''Arry, zat was….' Harry smiled at the adorable look on her face as she searched for a word, 'Incroyable. Zere is no doubt at all zat you were ze best, to walk out zere and speak to ze dragon? And seemply take ze egg? I knew zat you were brave mon Chevalier but zat took more than mere courage.'

Harry felt his face burning as Fleur continued to heap praise on him, before Hermione simply smiled and said.

'Don't worry about him Fleur, this is just what he does, he'll do something totally crazy and then shrug it off, it drives me mad sometimes. While he always seems to attract trouble like a magnet, he has an unbelievable talent of achieving the impossible to get out of it.'

'Hey!' Said a mildly peeved Harry. 'I never once went looking for trouble Mione.'

Fleur looked mischievously at him, 'non, but you definitely 'ave a talent for finding eet 'Arry.'

Hermione grinned at the sheepish expression on his face, 'she's right Harry, you do.'

Ron came in, looking both scared and very apprehensive as he began, 'Harry, I'm sorry, whoever put your name in, I think they're trying to do you in.'

Harry felt his eyes narrow as he looked towards Ron as he fidgeted under the combined glares of Hermione and Fleur, 'aaah, so you caught on I see, took you long enough.'

Ron's ears began to turn red and his eyes seemed to be hypnotically drawn towards Fleur before he mumbled, 'I said I was sorry didn't I? Can't we just forget this?'

Harry sighed, 'look Ron, while it's nice that you've finally seen the truth, I can't just forget this. I trusted you, and you broke that trust when you didn't believe me in the first place. While I can forgive you for it, I can't forget it just like that alright.'

Ron seemed to have no answer and huffed and walked away, his eyes seemingly undressing Fleur as he did so.

Hermione looked sadly at Ron's retreating form.

'That was quite mature of you Harry, now come on they should be putting your scores up.'

Hermione brought the subject back onto the task. 'Fleur was right, there's no way you could possibly lose this now. Cedric was clever as he had a similar idea to your first back up plan, he transfigured a dog and tried to sneak past, only catch was he got burned in the process as the dragon changed its mind halfway through. Fleur used some sort of sleep spell on the dragon and then snuck past it, problem was the dragon snored and set her skirt on fire and she had to use her wand to put it out.'

Harry looked alarmed and turned to Fleur who waved off his concern, 'I'm fine 'Arry, I put eet out before I was urt.'

Hermione continued her summary.

'Krum, he hit the dragon in the eyes with the conjunctivitis curse, only it went on a rampage and squashed half the real eggs.'

Harry winced, 'That's terrible, and I hope he lost points for that.

Both witches smiled before Hermione commented 'its marks out of ten from each one.'

Harry watched the first judge, Madam Maxime flick her wand and saw a silver ribbon fly out of it and saw it form itself into the number ten, to a roar of applause.

'Hardly surprising there, I doubt she had much choice.'

'Oui, eet was ze only fair score.'

Harry grinned as he saw the next judge, Mr Crouch fire a number, another ten.

'Wow, he was pretty harsh on the others.'

Dumbledore and Ludo Bagman were next, both firing tens into the air as the crowd cheered louder than ever. Finally came Professor Karkaroff as the crowd booed when he shot a number five into the air, in fact the noise got so loud, he finally relented and fired a second number, a six into the air.

'I cannot believe him,' fumed Hermione, 'he gave Krum a ten and his dragon squashed half her eggs.'

'To be honest Mione I really don't care, I doubt he scored Cedric or Fleur any fairer.'

He turned to Fleur and saw her nod.

''E gave me un quatre.'

''That's four,' translated Hermione

Harry's eyes widened, 'he took six points for a superficial burn?'

'Oui, but eet was not surprising.'

'How did Ludo Bagman judge the others?' Asked Harry

'Reasonably fair, took a few points off everyone for their mistakes so you're the only one he gave a perfect ten,' said Hermione.

After quickly meeting Charlie Weasley who was full of praise over both Harry and Fleur's performances Ludo Bagman drew Harry and Fleur into the tent where he gave the briefing for the next task, Harry paying little attention as he found the man's enthusiasm rather grating. Finally it was over and he and Fleur walked out together and towards Hermione who was waiting nearby. Madam Maxime beckoned Fleur towards her, and so Fleur quickly pressed a lingering kiss to his cheek and Harry watched her retreating form as he felt his face burn and noticed an odd tingling sensation in his scar as she waved at him. Hermione grabbed his arm, jerking his attention back to his surroundings and led him back towards the castle.

'Come on lover boy, the twins have probably set up a party, might as well let them get it out of their systems.'


	4. Chapter 3

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note: Italics equals spoken French in this chapter, and yes Hermione is technically a dual national, Emma Watson was born there. This chapter also marks a hint of the direction I'm moving the tale. To answer some of the points left by guest reviewers, that's a great idea with the dragons, I might work that in at some point if I can make it fit with what I've already written so far and have planned for the plot. I'm not sorry about Ron bashing, compared to some fics I've read, I went easy on him and think canon Harry was way too quick to forgive him after the first task and don't get me started about Deathly Hallows. True the whole money grubber Weasley's and potion/contract queen Molly/Ginny scenario gets old pretty quick. But to redeem Ron properly he needs one heck of a wakeup call to strip him down and rebuild his character more or less from scratch. Also, nobody expects perfection in fanfiction, yes I probably could have written a few of the early sections a bit better to explain what's happening but hopefully the next few chapters should fix the issues mentioned._

Chapter 3: Girl Talk

Fred and George had indeed thrown a party in Harry's honor much to his embarrassment as he was pulled into the common room to a torrent of cheering to find the space decorated with a lot of Dean's finest artwork showing him flying around the dragon, and a few with Cedric with his head on fire. The merriment went for most of the day, the whole house seemingly finally believing that Harry hadn't put his own name is much to Harry's surprise. The highlights of the party in Harry's eye were Neville spontaneously being turned into a giant canary and the egg screaming like a banshee when he was goaded into opening it by the crowd. Fred and George shocked Harry somewhat when they pulled him aside, cackling over a bag of gold they'd obvious won by betting on him and selling their wares with the two being twins, they started rallying.

'Bonjour Monsieur Potter.'

'Inspired effort against that dragon.'

'Áwe inspiring.'

'But more importantly.'

'You simply must tell us your secret to attracting haughty French veela,'

'Everybody else that tried it on got hexed apparently.'

'Love potion?'

'Entrancing charm?'

Harry looked around, luckily most of the crowd's attention was still on the party and he whispered.

'So you noticed?'

Both leaned in closer and Fred said, 'Harry, a blind man would have noticed, she used to hate you and now she's hanging around you almost as much as Hermione does. That's a pretty big deal, she definitely likes you.'

George carried on, 'however you did it, just invite us when it all happens and if you could tip us off in advance of the public announcement you'd really be doing us a favor. Still, good going Harry, just don't let Ronniekins drown in his own drool if you end up inviting him to the wedding. Though that would be a more amusing death than him being hexed by his man crush for stalking.'

Harry laughed at the mental image as they left.

The twins weren't the only one who'd noticed Fleur's attention to Harry and Hermione hoping for some answers tracked Fleur down and asked for a private word a few days after the party, the two witches ducking into an unused classroom.

' _Fleur can I have a word, it's about Harry?'_

' _Yes of course, I was waiting for zis to be honest and may I say you speak very good French for an Englishwoman.'_

' _I was born in France and lived there until I was 10, so I'm actually a dual national. Beauxbatons offered me a place which I would have taken up if my parents hadn't moved us back to England, I still spend a lot of time there in the summers.'_

Fleur looked surprised, but pleased as she replied, ' _wonderful, you must tell me more sometime, but back to the key point, Harry. You want to know what I've done to him and why yes? Before I tell you, what do you know of the veela race?'_

' _Changeling humans, live mainly in France and Bulgaria, active veela are always female and there isn't any such thing as half or quarter veela it's an all or nothing gift. Male children carry the potential to sire veela offspring and are usually very handsome, and all veela can project an aura that entrances men and can assume a birdlike form that can throw lethal fireballs. I read a few other things that sounded like nonsense, but those are the only facts that were really universally known.'_

' _Very good, but there is far more about the veela than those books would ever have written. Veela are beings of love and fire and our magic is based on tapping into those elements. Take the allure for example, in the majority of cases it reduces men to drooling imbeciles. But those men who hold the strength to resist shine out to us and we are drawn to them as they are the best choice for us as potential mates. But the key here is that veela can also sense emotions to a degree, especially in men. When Harry used the plea on me, not only did it show me the memories he used for the ritual. It also made his emotions shine out to me like a beacon. While Harry is fundamentally good natured and yearns for the love of family, I could sense a great darkness within him, a darkness so foul it could mean only one thing.'_

Hermione was shocked at what she was hearing, ' _What are you saying exactly?'_

Fleur looked grim, ' _Your dark lord whether accidentally or on purpose left a terrible legacy within Harry's scar, I dare not speak more of it, as though I do trust you there are those who can steal the truth from unprotected minds. I only know of it as veela are naturally resistant to mental attack and the knowledge of the nature of these objects has been passed down by some veela clans as a sacred trust to their members ensure the destruction of any that are located. If I'm right, I believe your dark lord created several such artefacts in an effort to spare himself from death, his very name is the clue, Vol de mort "Flight from Death". The problem we have is that normally to destroy the magic one must destroy the item beyond repair. This is not an option in Harry's case and left me only one means to remove the taint from Harry's mind whilst sparing his life though it will come at a cost, for us both. That is to replace it with a bond of equal power but opposite in nature given willingly, and the only bond short of a soul bond that can do this is the knighthood bond which in time seals an unconditional mating between a veela and a human permanently. The hatred of the dark lord's essence bound in the scar would not be able coexist in the same soul and as such should be expelled once the bond becomes strong enough to overcome it, given enough positive reinforcement. I always saw Harry's potential to be my knight as he managed to resist my allure, even if his entry to the tournament infuriated me. But once I saw the truth he showed me I knew then what I had to do. Even if in normal circumstances I would never have chosen Harry as my knight for several reasons. It will help him, beyond saving his life so you can rest assured it won't hurt him, and I and my family will take care of him so you need not worry that I will take advantage of this. Were there any alternative, I would have done it.'_

Hermione was speechless, ' _my god, well I only hope you know what you're doing, you know you're going to have to tell him all this at some point. He won't like it if he doesn't hear this from you, and soon.'_

' _I know that, once the bond is strong enough which hopefully should happen around the time of the second task his mind will be protected enough to stop all but an expert at ze mind arts, my family and I will tell him everything he needs to know. I don't like keeping secrets from him any more than you do, but if the wrong person were to steal the knowledge…..'_

' _But why me? Why tell me now if this is so sensitive? Everyone knows how close Harry and I are.'_

' _That is so, but you are also 'Arry's closest friend and I'm hoping you'll be able to help me keep him calm when the time comes, plus an organized mind such as yours does have some natural resistance to passive mental attack. I would suggest you look into a branch of magic called Occlumency. That should afford you the protection you need to be safer from mental attack, I can explain more of what I know once you gain enough of a skill in it. In the meantime I would be careful about which adults in the castle you make eye contact with, Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore for example, both are well known as masters of legillimency, the art of scanning minds.'_

Hermione nodded, rather shocked at the revelations and tried to turn the conversation onto a lighter note,

' _You've just broken the hearts of every fan girl in England, you do know that right?'_

' _I know, but none of them deserved him anyway, so I do not care. But one last thing, I know you love Harry, and he loves you even if he has never truly understood the emotion himself. I'm sorry if you feel I have stolen him from you but I truly had no alternative. But please, for me, don't feel you have to settle for that immature pig of a red headed boy. I'm sure you can find someone better. I believe there is to be a ball at Christmas, what better opportunity than to begin to look around you for a better man. I myself shall take 'Arry even if I have to ask him myself it will be a good chance to get to know him better as a person, but I promise I won't keep him to myself all night.'_

Hermione flushed pink at Fleur's rather frank assessments, knowing them to be true even if she'd never admitted them to anyone, even herself.

As winter began, the change in season brought freezing temperatures and strong winds to Hogwarts and Hagrid was still raising the Skrewts, much to Harry and the rest of the classes' annoyance as the beasts had grown to over six feet in length and were becoming much harder to manage than ever, even if there were only ten of them left. They certainly didn't hibernate as they all found one day when Hagrid bade the class to lead them into the pillow lined boxes he'd brought, only for the boxes to soon be destroyed and over half the class to stampede into his hut and barricade themselves in, just as Rita Skeeter arrived much to Harry's suspicion as he had heard that she had been banned from the grounds by Professor Dumbledore. She apparently arranged an interview with Hagrid about the Skrewts before quickly leaving, Ron whispering that Skeeter was likely to twist everything Hagrid said.

Later on that week, Harry looked up as Professor McGonagall called for the class's attention, the lesson had already finished and the bell was due to ring any minute.

'The Yule ball is approaching, a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity to socialise with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open only to fourth years and above, although you may invite a younger student if you wish. Dress robes will be worn and the ball will start at eight o clock on Christmas day and finish at midnight in the great hall.'

The professor paused while she looked around at the class before she continued. 'The Yule ball is of course a chance for all of us to, err let our hair down.'

Harry heard Parvati and Lavender giggle at this before the Professor carried on, 'but this does NOT mean that we will be relaxing the standards of behaviour we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarrasses the school in any way.'

The class was dismissed and Harry was held back by Professor McGonagall and told of his obligation to open the ball much to his embarrassment. But as he was leaving the classroom, a harried looking Fleur came around the corner, a look of annoyance on her face which softened as she saw him before she fell into step beside him and slipped her hand into his. Harry felt his face warm, and the odd tingling feeling in his scar return.

'You look troubled mon chevalier, ze ball per chance?'

'I get the feeling, all the "boy who lived groupies" are going to swarm me now I'm back in fashion after the first task hoping I'll ask them to this ball even if there's only two witches I'd seriously consider asking. But what about you? Have the drooling fan boys been troubling you again?'

Fleur smiled, 'oui, but eet is not unusual for me.'

Harry frowned, 'it shouldn't have to be like that, and you don't deserve to be ogled like fresh meat at the butchers.'

'Merci 'Arry, but you consider deux witches?'

Harry blushed even harder, 'Well, yes, but it leaves me in an awkward spot if I choose one I break the heart of the other and I really don't want to do that. Firstly there's Hermione, she's stood by me through thick and thin since first year and we've always been close. But on the other hand, you've been so nice to me and done a lot for me after we got over the embarrassing first meeting and, well….' Harry started to go a bit red.

Harry struggled to form words, but it seemed Fleur could read his face and he felt her hand rest on his cheek and a single finger press itself to his lips silencing him.

'Oui, 'Arry I know you're confused now and seek answers, answers I wish to give you more than you could possibly know but as soon as I can, my family and I will tell you everything. I 'ad a talk with 'Ermione a few days ago as I felt zis could become a problem. She will not 'old it against you, and we can always 'elp her find someone better zan ze red headed pig, non?'

Harry smiled inwardly at her description of Ron and swallowed as he felt his nerves rising but as her finger fell away he asked,

'Fleur will you come to the ball with me?'

'Oui, of course I will mon chevalier.'

Before he could blink, Fleur leaned in closer and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips and as she did so, Harry could swear he heard a faint scream on the edge of his hearing.

Life was great to Harry as Christmas drew closer, almost nobody beyond a few hard core Hufflepuffs who'd never liked Harry anyway were wearing the _Support Cedric Diggory_ badges anymore. He wasn't being hounded constantly by boy who lived groupies after he had let slip that he had a date already, though Fleur and he had both decided to surprise the school on the night of the ball. Dancing lessons that were offered to the house by Professor McGonagall were actually quite fun and Harry found that he picked the steps up quite quickly much to Hermione's shock and delight. Watching his friends and roommates bunglesome attempts at wooing their chosen became a daily comedy show for Harry, Ron's pathetic attempt at asking Fleur where he only barely got the words out while drooling being the most memorable. Harry snuck over in the aftermath and surreptitiously hexed Ron to sound like Mickey Mouse gassed on helium for the rest of the day much to Fleur's amusement as Ron skulked off. No nasty story about Hagrid had shown up in the Daily Prophet either as he explained during their last Care of Magical Creatures when thankfully he had finally stopped the class's direct handling of the Skrewts.

'She wasn't all that interested in magical creatures ter tell yeh the truth, she jus wanted to talk about you. So I told her all about you, not that she was too interested in what I was saying.'

'Probably because you weren't giving her any juicy gossip.' Said Harry

'You coming to this ball on Christmas Hagrid?' asked Ron.

'Thought I might, yeah,' said Hagrid, 'should be a good do I reckon. You'll be openin the dancing won't yeh Harry, who yeh going with?'

'That's a surprise, but don't worry you'll soon be enlightened.' Said a serene looking Harry as he and Hermione shared a knowing grin.

Rumours began flying everywhere as to the identity of his date as the last days of term passed though most were completely ridiculous to Harry and like always, the twins even set up a betting pool with the longest odds being on Professor Trelawney at 500 to 1. Most of the teachers were winding down on their lessons though some like McGonagall and Snape were keeping them working until the last day.

Cedric came up to him one afternoon and put him onto a hint about the golden egg saying that Moody had tipped him off, but Harry had already solved it with Fleur and Hermione's combined help, and was already working on a solution.

Christmas day soon dawned and Harry was jolted awake much sooner than he would have liked when Ron got up far too early for Harry's taste and woke him and the other boys before they began exchanging gifts and unwrapping those from the piles at the end of their beds. A new black dress robe with silver accenting and dark blue lining and some new casual muggle clothes proving a pleasant surprise as they were labelled as coming from the Delacours who at Fleur's suggestion he had begun to write to, Fleur's parents proving to be good people who were full of useful advice that he wished the other adults around him had given him in the past. After getting ready for the day, Harry and the others met Hermione and the other Gryffindor witches and went down for breakfast before returning to the tower where the whole house was sitting around enjoying their presents. Harry spent the afternoon having a massive snowball fight in the grounds with the Weasley's and a few others before Hermione disappeared to go get ready for the ball.

Harry and the boys hurried upstairs to follow suit, Harry inwardly smirking as he listened to Ron complain about his absurd maroon dress like creation.

'I should get a move on, I don't want to miss her in the crowd,' Harry said to the room at large.

Checking himself over one last time, Harry grabbed the corsage he'd ordered and sighed as he gave up on getting his hair any neater than it already was, ready to leave the tower.

'Who are you going with? I've got 5 galleons on you and Hermione so don't let me down.' Seamus called over.

'3 on Susan Bones from me,' called Dean.

The others bade him good luck and Harry hurried downstairs, passing through the common room which looked much more crowded than usual with so many people in different colours.

A few people called out to him trying to get him to reveal his mystery date.

'You'll all see soon enough now seriously, I gotta go.'

'Good luck,' said Fred or George.

'Please don't turn up with someone we've given too long a set of odds for,' they winked slyly at him.

Harry grinned and waved as he pushed open the portrait and left the common room, making his way down to the entrance hall which was also packed and full of people, with people looking for their partners edging through the crowd. Thankfully he didn't need to look far for Fleur as he spotted her almost instantly as she looked to be almost glowing in a stylish dark blue dress that matched the lining of his robe. Harry felt his jaw drop

Fleur smiled at him, a hint of pink on her cheeks, 'bonsoir 'Arry, am I so beautiful you have no words left?'

That snapped him out of it and before he lost his nerve, Harry grabbed her hand and bent to kiss it much to the shock of the whole room and Fleur giggled as she looked him over approvingly.

'Bon, you learn quickly and look very suave mon chevalier.'

Harry heard the sighs from surrounding witches as he offered and pinned the corsage he'd brought and made a mental note to thank Neville later.

'You look….Well, beautiful hardly does you justice.'

Harry stood and spoke with Fleur as more and more people arrived, a few of the pairings highly surprising to him. Such as Ron arriving with a younger Ravenclaw who he remembered seeing about a few times at the start of the year. Amazingly with his ludicrous robe charmed to match his partners silver dress, making it look surprisingly good on him but the real shock came when Hermione arrived a few minutes later on the arm of none other than Viktor Krum himself.

Harry was shocked as he said to Hermione, 'wow, this is a surprise but a good one though, you probably annoyed a lot of fan girls Mione.'

Hermione giggled, 'who cares, and come on Harry he's alright, besides you're not the only one who can surprise people.'

Cedric looked peeved from his spot next to Cho, 'damn, you just lost me 10 galleons Potter.'

Harry turned to Cedric, 'never bet against the twins, they have a habit of winning, I saw them win a bet against Ludo Bagman at the world cup, at very long odds.'

Cedric shrugged, 'well I hope he paid them, I heard my dad say old Ludo's in a tight spot at the moment.'

Professor McGonagall called the champions to her and told them to wait in line while the other students went into the hall before they would enter in procession. Harry stood straight and waited for the moment, Fleur squeezing his arm in support.

The doors were thrown open and the rest of the school went in, many students shooting daggers at him and Hermione others had their jaws dropping as they noticed Fleur on his arm. Finally they were bade to move in and Harry walked forward, determined not to let disgruntled fools spoil the night for him and Fleur. They made their way to the top table where the judging panel were sitting and stopped before Professor Dumbledore. Harry was guided into a seat next to Percy Weasley who was supposedly filling in for an absent Mr Crouch. Harry found Percy boring as usual but picked up a few points of interest from him.

The meal was as good as any he had eaten at Hogwarts, though the conversation was more the high point, Fleur proving quite a charming dinner companion as she spoke of Beauxbatons and how it was different to Hogwarts.

Dumbledore stood up and bade the students to do the same as he conjured a stage where some musical instruments were standing. The band trooped on stage and Harry asked,

'May I have this dance?'

Fleur smiled and took his arm as they made their way onto the dance floor, she was as good a dancer as Harry suspected and as the song began his nerves seemed to disappear. He soon noticed that soon more couples were joining in, even Ron was among them as he danced with his date from Ravenclaw. The champions were no longer the centre of attention, though as he swept Fleur around the floor many a couple were watching enviously.

Mad Eye Moody was dancing nearby with a scared looking Professor Sinistra and as Harry and Fleur went past, Harry asked.

'Have you ever wondered if there was something funny about him? I knew he was a bit strange, but there's something else I've been noticing.'

Fleur smiled, 'E is well known for eet 'Arry, but zat flask is full of pungent fluid and eet is not the same scent as the whiskey ze 'orses drink.'

The song ended and the next few numbers were far too fast for the two of them to speak to each other, but after a while Harry said.

'Bit stuffy in here, let's go grab a drink and find somewhere to cool off.'

Fleur nodded and followed him off the dance floor which was fast becoming rather hazardous as he noticed Hagrid and Madam Maxime taking up a fair amount of space, students eyeing the pair nervously. Harry led the way to a table where Hermione was sitting, rather pink in the face from dancing. Hermione commented that Viktor had gone to collect butterbeer and Harry quickly followed suit.

' _Quite the dancer isn't he? You looked like you were enjoying yourself_.'

' _Yes, he's been great, I'm amazed how well he's adapting_.'

' _Oh no, what are they doing?_ '

Harry and Viktor got back just in time to see Fred and George trying to waylay Ludo Bagman after he had finished dancing with Professor McGonagall, he shook them off fairly quickly before the twins quickly joined them, butterbeer quickly being passed around.

Hermione looked confused, 'what was that all about?'

Harry had a brainwave as he looked between the twins and Ludo Bagman and thought of the jovial man's actions at the Triwizard tournament and the world cup and a few things he'd noticed and slowly came to a disturbing conclusion.

'Oh man, surely not, Ludo can't be that dumb can he _?_ ' He thought with surprise.

Harry had his suspicions all but confirmed as Fred tried to shrug Hermione off.

Fred looked conflicted, 'Business my dear lady, we wanted to ask him a few questions on business law and he's more fun than our brother.'

That seemed to mollify Hermione as she blushed and said, 'oh I see, Percy is a bit uptight sometimes isn't he.'

George grinned, 'that's right.'

Harry took a sip of his drink and felt Fleur's eyes on him and he mouthed,

'I think I know what's going on here, and it gives me an idea.'

She nodded before she said

'Come 'Arry, let's go get some fresh air.'

Harry followed her out through the entrance hall and into the rose gardens lit by fairly lights where here and there Harry could make out the odd couple hidden from view behind pillars and bushes as they walked and just as Harry felt his heart began to race at the look on Fleur's face he heard voices coming towards them.

'Listen.' She hissed as she pulled him into a bush.

Professors Snape and Karkaroff were close by and seemed to be in serious conclave.

'…..don't see what the fuss is about Igor, you managed quite well for yourself if I remember correctly.'

'Severus, you cannot pretend this isn't happening! If he returns I'm a dead man'

'It's been getting clearer and clearer for months, I am becoming seriously concerned, and I can't deny it.'

Snape sounded much firmer, 'then flee, I will make your excuses. I however am remaining at Hogwarts.'

Snape left, luckily without seeing them and Harry took a deep breath and said, 'What was that all about? Might be worth checking a few facts.'

Fleur look as confused as he felt as they continued along, soon noticing Hagrid and Madam Maxime and overhearing another conversation which revealed that Hagrid was actually half giant. But what Harry spotted was a beetle perched on a reindeer statue which had rather unusual markings on its eyes which curiously failed to see him as its gazed was fixed on Hagrid.

Harry's eyes widened as his mind processed the implications and the possibilities, even though it felt like something of a Faustian deal to him.

Fleur had noticed the look on his face.

'What's wrong?'

Harry whispered 'That beetle, on the statue, I'm fairly sure it's Rita Skeeter, fits what everyone knows about her style. Who'd notice a beetle normally? Only normally beetles are dormant this time of year. I bet she's unregistered, or people would have put wards up, hang on. I'll just check…'

Harry put his hand into his pocket and pulled out the Marauders map which he always kept handy and quickly activated it and scanned the parchment with the aid of the light of a nearby group of fairies and soon spotted what he suspected before he wiped it.

'Yeah, it's her alright. Gives me an idea though even if I hate the implications.'

Harry watched as the beetle flew away as Hagrid and Madam Maxime split up and he whispered his idea to Fleur.

The look on her face was priceless, a mix of mischief and pride.

'Oh Arry, zat is ingenious! I am so proud, beating er at er own game and using er to fight your enemies at ze same time?'

Fleur pulled him close and kissed him and Harry knew then if it helped the world he'd do it just for the affection and happiness of the beautiful witch in his arms.

Harry and Fleur went back to the ball, dancing a few more songs before switching partners for the last few, Harry swapping with Viktor and dancing the last songs with Hermione, quickly filling her in on what he had overheard and what had happened, much to her astonishment.

The ball finished at midnight, much to the disappointment of the students who wished it could go on for longer, Harry walked Fleur out and began bidding her farewell at the door to the entrance hall where the Beauxbatons students were mingling, ready to head back to their carriage.

'Thanks Fleur, I had a great time, even the bit where we had to deal with Rita was kind of fun.'

Fleur laughed musically, 'welcome to ze world of backroom politics Arry.'

Harry pulled her into his arms before he leaned in to kiss her, and as he walked up towards the common room he knew that nothing would ever be the same again.

'


	5. Chapter 4

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note: I am amazed both at the number of reviews I'm getting and the amount of discussion this fic is generating. While most of the reviews are mainly just bidding me to keep writing which I will don't you worry, some have picked apart my work like professionals. One reviewer even eager to debate on the concept of Ron bashing quite respectfully. Definitely had some good points which I concede as true. But if you think I'm bad, read some of the stuff written by a lot of the better established authors, and there's lots of Ron friendly work out there to enjoy. To those who feel that the elephant in the room in terms of Harry's reaction to Fleur's actions haven't been addressed, quite a bit of the next few chapters after this one are going to focus on that, and she already did apologize for using magic on him. But now, on with the show._

Chapter 4: Blackmail and Other Fine Customs

Harry like just about everybody else got up late on boxing day, tired out after dancing most of the previous night away. Most of the occupants of Hogwarts seemed rather dispirited now that Christmas was over or still in shock over the ball much to Harry's amusement. But inwardly he felt his resolve increase. The dreams had begun to grow clearer, the shrouded female figure that fought the darkness becoming more and more lifelike as the days wore on. Harry sat down in the common room after a quick dash to the library to check vital facts and began to write a few letters, first to Sirius and the Weasley's letting them know what had been happening. The other made his face harden as he steeled himself to begin to carry out his plans for unconventional warfare.

 _Rita,_

 _Know that I know your secret to gathering information for your stories and know that you are unregistered, see enclosed list of the current witches and wizards on the animagus register for the past 30 years taken from a certified self-updating copy of the book. I know for a fact you were at the yule ball eavesdropping on Hagrid and Maxime discussing their blood status, never mind how I know for now. I will not turn you in to the DMLE for the time being, in exchange for editing and printing a few articles that I and my associates will write and owl to you thus exposing more deserving targets for public scrutiny and outcry. My other demand is that you refrain from publishing any stories about the triwizard champions and known associates of them without provable facts given through legitimate sources with no usage of quick quotes quills. As a show of my good faith, I'll even give you a better story lead for you to investigate for free. Based on a few observations I suspect that Ludo Bagman was running a bent betting pool at the quidditch world cup and used leprechaun gold to pay out the winners. Conning two friends of mine out of a considerable sum of gold they won fair and square by winning a bet they made with him at rather substantial odds in the process. I also believe that he has been attempting to use his influence to try and rig the outcome of the Triwizard tournament, possibly to chase losses or pay off gambling debts to others. Convey your acceptance by not printing a word about Hagrid or Madam Maxime, failure to do or any breach of my conditions will result in my proof of your crimes being delivered directly to Amelia Bones._

 _I will contact you again, sincerely._

 _The Blue Knight._

 _PS. This letter will self-immolate in 30 seconds after you finish reading it._

Harry sealed his letters and cast the spell on Rita's with a sense of satisfaction before hurrying off to the first sending Hedwig with his letter to the Weasleys, he called two school owls down before sending them with the other letters he'd drafted.

Hurrying downstairs he went into breakfast, sliding into a seat next to Fleur and Hermione and loaded up his plate.

'Where have you been?'

'I had to go send a few owls, haven't written to snuffles in a while and I thought I'd let the Weasley's know that the twins didn't cause an international incident at the ball and that Ron behaved himself.'

Hermione smiled, but Fleur winked slyly at him and squeezed his hand.

'Never realized 'ow much of a gossip you are 'Arry.'

Both girls laughed at this much to Harry's annoyance.

Harry turned to Hermione with a question he'd been itching to ask since he saw her with Viktor Krum.

'Hey Hermione, why'd you go with Krum after what he did to the dragon?'

Hermione frowned at the memory of the first task and answered.

'I met him in the library, he said he'd been using it as a place to hide as he was sick of the groupies following him around all day and that he guessed I was safe to talk to as I hadn't paid him the slightest bit of attention. I did ask him about the task, and he sounded rather guilty about those eggs. He said he'd owled his agent to pay a big donation to the dragon preserve, and to go buy a few big cows to give to the dragon as a gift. I was surprised when he asked, but isn't the whole point of this tournament supposed to be about meeting new people?'

'So a shared interest in fighting for the rights of sentient magical creatures then? That's pretty decent of him to think of that, I might write to Charlie, see what he thinks would be a good gift,' said Harry.

Fleur nodded her head, 'If I follow suit and we ask Cedric too as well, zat would be only fair.'

Hermione smiled at the pair of them, 'that would probably be a bigger gesture of international cooperation than those stupid tasks anyway.'

Harry and Hermione were discussing the upcoming tasks requirements one evening when Neville overhead them and piped up from nearby.

'Hey Harry, Hermione, I've got something that might help, give me a second to go get it ok.'

Neville came down from the boy's dormitories clutching book a labelled _'Magical Mediterranean Water Plants and Their Properties.'_

Neville flipped through the book for a time before he passed it to Harry who quickly read the section Neville had indicated which dealt with gillyweed before he said.

'Where did you get this Neville? It isn't a library book.'

'Oh Professor Moody gave it to me, remember the lecture where he used the unforgivable curses on those spiders. Afterwards he took me to his office and gave me this, said that Professor Sprout had told him I'm really good at Herbology. Anyway, looks like you need it now so just give it back when you're done with it.'

'Thanks Neville.'

Harry turned to Hermione 'doesn't this seem just a little too convenient that the book just happens to have an ideal solution to the task and that Moody puts it in the hands of a person known to be a friend of mine, and apparently he tipped Cedric off on how to get the eggs clue. That lecture with the spiders was before I even got chosen so that doesn't make any sense, he's no seer. Something doesn't add up here, think we ought to tell someone? Other than Fleur of course.'

Hermione's eyes widened, 'Harry are you saying he's bent?'

'Could be, Fleur says the contents of that flask reek and it isn't booze. We both know one potion that would do it based on personal experience.'

Hermione's hand went to her mouth as the realization hit her…

'We need to go to Professor Dumbledore Harry. Bring the map, we can prove it that way.'

So Harry and Hermione hurried to the headmaster's office and after trying several random sweets, they were eventually admitted.

'Mr Potter and Miss Granger, how can I help you this evening?'

'Sir, we think Professor Moody is an impostor using polyjuice potion.'

'Harry and Hermione launched into their theory and explained their observations to an astounded Dumbledore who quickly halted them and fetched Professor Snape before bidding them to continue. Both men looked grim by the end of their tale before Dumbledore spoke.

'I thank you both for bringing this to my attention, however until we know for certain what our impostor is here to do we cannot risk a confrontation.'

He held up a hand to halt Harry as his outrage was clear on his face.

'Be assured this will be investigated thoroughly, now I know you have your fathers old map Harry, I want you to activate it and look at the DADA office.'

Harry did so and scanned the parchment.

'The real Moody is in the office with, Barty Crouch? That makes no sense, he's supposed to be sick and he can just walk in here on tournament business. Why would he even need to polyjuice Moody? To spy on people?'

Professor Snape sighed, and said,

'What you must know Potter is that there were once two wizards by that name, Father and son. Barty senior you've met, but junior was a death eater and was caught just after the attack on your family as an accessory in one of the most brutal atrocities of the entire war. His father put him on trial and threw him into Azkaban along with the others, where he supposedly died shortly afterwards. But as we know based on the mutts experience, Azkaban isn't escape proof and death can be faked, as that cowardly rat Pettigrew proved.'

Harry's eyebrow rose, 'I thought you didn't believe us on that one sir, in fact if I remember correctly you slowed us down to the point where he got away, convinced Fudge we were confunded and tried to feed Sirius to the dementors.'

'That doesn't matter you insolent brat, your precious godfather got away from his well-deserved fate.'

Harry felt his anger grow in a fit of either bravery of madness carried on as he stood up and faced Snape down.

'Yes it does, if I ever find that you're withholding evidence that would free Sirius then you'll regret it. I heard you talking to Karkaroff at the ball that night, it would be a tragedy if that were to become public knowledge. Wouldn't be enough to convict you of death eater activity, but try talking your way out of the public demands for your job, especially right now with the world's eyes on the school. Modifying my memory won't work as I've taken precautions, so you won't shut me up that way, either of you.'

'Empty threat, my record is well known Potter and twenty points from Gryffindor for insolence,' Snape scoffed.

'Oh really is that so, then how about I leak just how bad your teaching record is. I've checked the facts sir, and they would make one hell of a front page story. Such as "Skill Shortage in Potions, Britain short 40% of needed NEWT graduates for healer and Auror posts" or maybe, "Tyranny in the Hogwarts Dungeons, Students Traumatised by Teacher."''

'Why you little…..' he drew his wand as Hermione gasped in shock.

Dumbledore stood up and spoke, using his wand to make several loud noises like gunshots.

'Severus, Harry, that is enough, now sit down the pair of you and Severus, I hereby revoke that deduction and how dare you draw a wand on a student. Harry, I am sorry that you would think I would stoop so low as to modify a student's memory. But what you must understand is that Professor Snape must remain at his post, I am well aware of your differences but for the greater good they must be put aside.'

Harry scoffed, 'screw your bloody greater good sir, is your reason for keeping him here honesty worth persecuting three quarters of the school population? What could honestly justify making the point system and the house cup a joke? What can possibly be worth denying the career aspirations of so many witches and wizards because they need NEWTS in potions and you've saddled them with the worst potions teacher in recent history? What secrets are worth allowing a man to transfer a grudge from a dead man to his son purely because of genetics? How can you justify traumatising an innocent student to the point where he has nightmares and his boggart takes the form of that bastard? I'd like to know what you would think is worth keeping almost the entire school population that doesn't have green and silver trim on their robes on the brink of rebellion?' One incident bad enough that he allows to go unpunished, one unjustified punishment for self-defence or some ridiculous reason too many and the entire school will turn into a god damn war zone with every Slytherin having a target painted on them.'

Murmuring was coming from the portraits of previous heads

Dumbledore looked shocked, as did Snape.

'Is it truly so bad? That the entire school would resort to violence and murder?'

Hermione spoke up, 'if you check the disciplinary records which we have both looked up in the library in the past you'll see just how bad it is sir. You know that with so few teachers and three potentially angry houses out for Slytherin blood, the end result would be inevitable.'

The portraits were shouting in dismay.

'There're official means to handle complaints of this nature.'

Harry scoffed, 'with respect sir, everybody who isn't a blind ignorant sheep, which admittedly is about three quarters of the student body know that people like Lucius Malfoy have the board of governors and the ministry in their pocket. So even if theoretically someone like Malfoy or Parkinson got expelled, they'd be back here by breakfast the next day and whoever complained would probably get a month's detention at least, or get sacked for whatever reason Lucius Malfoy found convenient, you remember what happened to Hagrid last year I'm sure. That's probably also why Crabbe and Goyle haven't failed out of here altogether by now as well. Complaining to teachers is no use, because punishments and point losses have a mysterious way of being cancelled. Back in first year for example after myself, Hermione and Malfoy all got caught out of bed I saw that the fifty points he'd been docked had been restored by lunchtime the next day. And launching complaints to the boards no use either, I've checked those records, and over 200 current and former students have tried over the course of Snape's tenure. Yet not one case has had any real results and the last who tried, the witch in question was given a week's detention and lost 50 points.'

Dumbledore turned to his potions master, anger clear on his face, 'Severus is this all true? Who was it?'

'Nymphadora Tonks.' The dour man said, defeat clear on his expression.

Dumbledore sighed, 'very well, clearly I have work to do, but be assured I will investigate this matter fully. I will address the school tonight with my findings and the changes that will be made to ensure no repeat of these circumstances. But I beg you, please do not go to the press. Professor Snape and Slytherin house will be punished, severely, I promise you. But with regard to the other matter, we will do all we can to ensure that it is handled discretely. Though I must ask you both for your silence for the time being, we cannot afford to run the risk of harm coming to the student body in the event of a public confrontation.

Dumbledore drew his wand, 'I Albus Dumbledore do swear on my life and magic that all matters relating to the complaints against Severus Snape and the information about Alastair Moody made here today shall be investigated and acted upon as soon as reasonably possible, so mote it be.'

There was a white flash and Harry nodded, 'thank you sir.'

Harry and Hermione left and Harry turned to her once they were out of the headmaster's office and sighed, 'I really wish I didn't have to do that, but I don't think there was a nice way that would work.'

Hermione asked, 'would you really have done it? Gone to the press?'

'Yes, Snape's had his way far too long and Dumbledore never seemed to want to do anything about it. If he wasn't going to do anything then I felt like I had no choice. I couldn't face three more years of that bat hanging over my shoulder just for whatever dad did to him. It isn't just him though, this whole society needs new leadership, as long as people like Malfoy and Fudge control things, it won't get any better for people like us. Look at Fleur and you, they would hate her just because she's a veela, and they wouldn't care how good you are because of your parents. They would think you're both good for only one thing and I can't stand it, and if I've got to resort to underhanded tactics to get rid of the corruption so be it.'

Hermione saw the determination on his face and knew he was serious but had to ask,

'How will you do it?'

'By attacking the one thing they value the most, their public image.

'What about Moody? Do you think they're right leaving him like that?' Asked Hermione

'No, but the old man probably does have a point, if he's confronted publically he could do anything, like take someone else hostage or go on a killing spree.'

Hermione shuddered at the thought.

'That night at dinner, Harry saw as Professor Dumbledore called for silence, a grave look on his face. Professor Snape looked broken at his place at the faculty table as the old man began to speak.

'Today a grave situation was brought to my attention, a terrible injustice that has been festering for far too long within these halls. Many of you have become dissolutioned with the point system, believing it a joke, many believe that the house cup has become mired with corruption. Some now believe potions class little more than psychological torture and have stopped aspiring to take any job requiring a potions NEWT. That separate standards apply to Slytherin than the other houses, it stops now. As a result of the findings of my investigation many changes have and will be made. Firstly, Professor Snape has now been placed on probation for the next five years with all powers of discipline subject to permanent audit. He has also been stripped of his head of house stewardship, and all his potions lessons will now be monitored by an independent adjudicator for the period of his probation.'

Three quarters of the school leapt to their feet and began cheering before Dumbledore quietened them,

'A full review of the records of the house cup and disciplinary records was carried out and as a result, Slytherin house has been stripped of its six previous house cup victories which will be represented to the second place houses of those years. The trophy shall be adjusted to reflect this.'

He paused, 'Many of you believed complaining useless as you thought certain Slytherins untouchable owing to family connections. I will not name them, but know all have been placed on permanent probation for the remainder of their time at this school, any further infractions shall result in suspension or expulsion depending on the nature of their crimes. New rules have also been enacted, as of now, any usage of terms such as "mudblood", "blood traitor", and "half breed" will result in an automatic two week detention for a first offence, a one hundred point deduction for a second and a suspension for a third. Slytherin house is also deducted five thousand points, let all who would believe themselves superior based on an accident of birth reflect on the stain of this dishonour. While I will not ask for you to forgive those who quite rightly have wronged you, all I ask for is your patience as we strive to restore the harmony the four founders once enjoyed.'

A standing ovation greeted the end of the speech though Harry saw the subdued mood at the Slytherin table.

Fleur laid a hand on his shoulder and Harry shivered at the touch and smiled as she whispered.

'You wield words like a sword 'Arry and if zis is an example of your work ze establishment shall soon tremble in fear. Zere is more than one way to slay ze snake non?'

The rest of the holidays passed, the castle unusually quiet after a massive party had been held celebrating the downfall of Snape in all three affected houses. Harry was in a good mood the morning of the first day of the new term which got even better when he saw the newspaper.

 _ **Senior Department Head Implicated In Gambling Scandal**_

 _ **By Rita Skeeter**_

 _A concerned citizen who wishes to remain anonymous recently passed information to the Daily Prophet regarding suspicions of a gambling scandal at the recent quidditch world cup and the Triwizard tournament, though a few discreet enquiries I was able to prove them beyond all doubt. Ludo Bagman, head of the department of Magical Games and Sports ran a bent bookmaking service, paying out the winners with leprechaun gold which as we all know disappears within a few hours. Further inquiries revealed that not only had Mr Bagman swindled winners out of several thousand galleons in bets, he also owes over 10,000 galleons to the Gringotts goblins. In order to pay them, my anonymous source has stated that Mr Bagman appears to be attempting to use his influence to rig the tournament in an apparent effort to win a bet in order to cover his losses. It is the hope of the Daily Prophet that the Ministry of Magic can step in with a solution before the goblins mount a revolt as owing to previous treaties, as a ministry official the goblins will have the legal precedent to make a claim against the assets of the ministry to the value of the debt._

Harry smiled as he finished reading, noticing the look of shock on the twins face as everybody in the hall began murmuring as the news began to spread as the article was digested.

Care of Magical Creatures was quite interesting, though to Harry a little boring as Hagrid brought in some unicorns. Malfoy looked angry and the apparent effort into keeping silent was obviously painful as he glared daggers at Harry along with his cronies.

There was a Hogsmeade visit in mid-January and Harry quickly asked Fleur who eagerly consented to come whilst Hermione went with Ron and the Weasley twins. As they walked towards the road he noticed Viktor dive off the ship and into the lake.

'Is he mad? 'It's the middle of January.'

Fleur shook her head, 'non, undoubtedly e's trying to scout ze lake bottom which actually isn't zat bad an idea.'

After a pleasant trip into the village browsing the shops Harry lead the way into the three broomsticks where he spotted Rita and her photographer Bozo sitting nearby after he had bought drinks. The two Daily Prophet employees caught their eyes and wandered over to them before leading them to back to their table.

'Harry darling, what brings you here hmm? With the lovely Miss Delacour too, I smell quite the juicy story so do tell it.'

Harry took a deep breath and then had a brainwave, 'international magical cooperation and the chance to meet witches and wizards from foreign countries is the whole reason why they restarted the tournament isn't it? What better way to break the ice than a nice pint of Madam Rosmerta's finest butterbeer? By the way that was a great article you wrote about Ludo Bagman. I must say I'm rather shocked and dismayed that our esteemed politicians could stoop so low, they're the ones meant to be setting an example to the rest of us. Makes me wonder what else the ministry has tried to sweep under the rug over the years.'

Fleur caught on to what Harry was up to and added,

'Eet would be quite rude of us to ignore our 'osts and Árry has been quite the gentleman. But I agree zat politicians must be 'eld to ze greatest standards of integrity. Ze eyes of ze world and ze ICW are upon England, first for 'osting ze world cup and now ze tournament. Let zem all see that none are above ze law, even zeir leaders.'

Rita was scribbling away furiously while Bozo snapped a few pictures of Fleur and Harry.

'Any comment on the Slytherin situation.'

'I have faith in the headmasters judgement, but I'm shocked it had to go as far as it did before action was taken, but I can only hope that lessons were learned by all involved so that something like this never happens at Hogwarts again.'

'Very stirring you two, but I do hope you put all your efforts into the task.'

Harry shrugged, 'naturally, but don't just quote us, I think I saw Cedric heading for Madam Pudifoots, don't know about Viktor, he was training last time I saw him. But I reckon they'll give you some good quotes if you ask nicely. A lot more people than us are involved here.'

Harry saw the smile form as she shut the notebook with a snap.

Fleur led the way out a little while later after they'd finished their drinks.

'You'd make a fine politician mon chevalier, zat was inspired.'

Harry was about to object before her finger pressed to his lips silencing him.

'Non 'arry, not all politicians are like Malfoy and Fudge, for ze majority of people in ze world, zey live and die following blindly, not making a major difference to ze world. But ozers, now and again come who bend ze world around zem, who are destined to be leaders, you 'arry are a leader, you prove it again and again. You will sweep aside ze corruption, and you will lead the way out of it.'


	6. Chapter 5

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note: Wow, once again I am floored by the reviews coming in, I know this story might not be too everyone's taste, but too bad. I'm getting a lot more reviews telling me it's great so I'll keep writing it the way I'm planning on writing it. Now a few have been telling me to get on with a chapter of reactions so here we are as we mark the beginning of the next section of the tale._

Chapter 5: And the Truth Shall Set You Free

Alphonse Delacour sat in the stands set up besides the freezing lake with his wife fuming inwardly as he thought of the Triwizard tournament and its organisers.

' _To involve willing participants is one thing, to take hostages is another, Gabbi and young Hermione no less? I swear if something happens at the third task, that will be the last straw.'_

Cornelius Fudge moved among the four champions, spacing them out at regular intervals along the lake shore. Alphonse couldn't help but notice the strain on the man's face as he tried to act like his usual public self.

' _In his position it is hardly surprising he is feeling the strain, I cannot believe Bagman could be so foolish, all the bludgers must have damaged his brain.'_

The fallout from the article had been a massive blow to the British ministry, forcing them to extradite the disgraced wizard to goblin custody and make reparation payments to the tune of 20,000 galleons to the goblins and compensate the victims who'd been conned by the man. Already some on the Wizenagmot were calling for Fudge's resignation though he was managing to hold his post for the time being with the backing of his usual cronies.

A whistle blew and Alphonse directed his gaze back to the champions, watching his eldest daughter cast a charm upon herself and dive into the freezing water .Before noticing the young man who had been the catalyst for so much change for his family drink the contents of a glass phial, the effect quickly giving him gills as he followed suit.

' _A distillation of the gillyweed plant, that is quite clever,'_ thought Alphonse feeling rather impressed despite his grim mood.

Apolline turned to face him from where she was sitting to his right, ' _Will they be alright Al?'_

' _Yes poppete, if Fleur fails, her knight will succeed in saving Gabbi. If what I've learned of him and his history is any judge, he will not stop until they are both safe.'_

Alphonse drew his wife close to his side as he felt her shiver and cast warming charms over them both and wrapped a blanket around their bodies.

' _Thank you Al, but a swimming task in the middle of Febuary where the audience can't see what is happening? Honestly, who approved this? That Bagman perhaps?'_ Apolline huffed.

Alphonse chuckled at the put out look on his wife's face and thought of the hectic few days he'd had, using the chaos at the British ministry as an opportunity to carry out his own political manoeuvrings to help his daughter and her young knight past a lot of the difficulties he laid squarely at the feet of one Albus Dumbledore.

' _Old fool, cannot see the trees for the forest anymore. I think his retirement would be the best for the greater good when this is over.'_

Alphonse flooed into the Ministry that day and made his way up to the DMLE office and soon knocked on the director's office and was admitted to find his old friend Amelia Bones midway through a large pile of paperwork.

'Ahh, Alphonse, this is a pleasant surprise my friend, what can I do for you?'

Alphonse put his briefcase on the desk and snapped it open before pulling out a dossier full of documents he'd obtained from his contacts and a phial of memories which he passed over to his old wartime ally.

'We have a situation on our hands Amelia, one that will rock the magical community to ze core. My daughter recently came into the possession of some rather alarming information on recent events concerning young Harry Potter, zat with his consent she passed onto me. Events which I have reason to suspect have been covered up for reasons relating to Albus Dumbledore's so called greater good.'

Amelia's face had been hardened by long service to one of the roughest lines of ministry work but she was still shocked at the words coming from her French counterpart's mouth.

'How did she get this information in the first place? My Susan tells me he's normally tight lipped about his private life, and who can blame him to be honest. '

'It would seem Monsieur Potter took a great deal of offence to a comment Fleur made on ze night of ze champions selection and zen somehow managed to successfully cast ze plea of Morpheus on her. She owled me after she had spoken to him and got his consent and I was luckily able to open a dialogue between us and find him quite the sensible garcon. I wrote to a few old wartime contacts I still keep in touch with to do a little clandestine digging to verify a few facts he gave me but what was revealed was ze tip of ze proverbial iceberg I fear.'

Amelia's surprise rose even more, but her face hardened as she skimmed the documents in the dossier.

'Why now? Why wait until now to contact me?'

'Because zere are two ozzer matters of import that we must discuss relating to zis issue and if we can deal with zem while the bulk of ze ministry is too distracted to notice it would be better for all involved. Afterwards ze rest can be dealt with at out leisure once we involve Monsieur Potter directly as his testimony will undoubtedly be vitally important in deciding how best to proceed in solving ze crisis Albus 'as created.'

'Our first issue is zat Fleur has chosen to bind young Harry to her as her knight, zis being done to save his life as she has sensed something terrible in zat scar which I will fully explain in private later, hopefully with imput from ze both of them as Veela are much better informed in zeese matters zan I. Because of zis, young Harry will now fall under ze jurisdiction of ze Fench Ministry Veela Liaison Office Regulation 7 subsection 3. In zat as an underage orphan who has been bound by a knighthood bond, he is to be fostered by the parents of ze veela who bound him until he is old enough to wed ze veela. Unless an approved guardian is already in place who can assist him to understand ze ramifications of ze bond. When I spoke to ze goblins in ze probate department at Gringotts they revealed zat his legal guardian is none other zan Sirius Black, who is still bound by ze godfather ritual.'

Amelia's jaw dropped, 'but that would mean he couldn't have betrayed them or he would have died from the penalty….Oh Merlin! Bagman being guilty of trying to cheat goblins is one thing, a wrongful imprisonment scandal like this is another, have you spoken to him Alphonse?'

'Oui, I sent him an owl with a communication mirror and after persuading him to come to France I had him escorted across ze channel by muggle means. He presented himself at ze ministry in Paris yesterday where he requested political asylum and was formally questioned under veritaserum. Ze memory transcript is in ze phial and he is now in a safe place and has already reluctantly agreed to sign over guardianship for ze time being while he undergoes medical and psychological treatment for his ordeal and ze matter is being formally settled with your government.'

Amelia quickly retrieved a pensieve and soon entered the swirling substance landing in what looked to be a standard auror interview room seeing Sirius in a chair with two French aurors standing beside him, while Alphonse was carrying a vial that Amelia recognized immediately as Veritaserum.

' _Monsieur Black, you have consented to ze use of Veritaserum for your questioning, but be aware zat anything you say shall be considered evidence in a court of law. Do you understand and consent to zis?'_

' _Yes, I'm glad to see the French do things by the book even if the English don't, so let's get on with it director.'_

' _Oui, Jacques, administer ze serum.'_

Amelia watched as Sirius was dosed, andhis eyes developed the unfocussed look of a subject under the influence.

' _Very good we shall start with ze standard questions, what is your name?'_

' _Sirius Orion Black.'_

' _Which house were you in at Hogwarts?'_

' _Gryffindor.'_

' _Good, very good, now to business, were you ever a Death eater or a Voldemort sympathiser?'_

' _No, never, I'd had enough blood supremacists and dark arts at home growing up, I'd never join them.'_

' _Were you ze secret keeper of ze Potters?'_

' _At first I was, but after the death eaters started paying too much attention to me James and I switched to Peter, so I could act as a diversion to throw them off the scent and make sure they couldn't torture it out of me.'_

' _What did you do when you found zat ze Potters had been attacked?'_

' _I went to Peter's house and found him gone and then realised what he must have done and what I'd inadvertently put in motion. In my rage, I went looking for Peter and found him a few days later in Manchester. He shouted to the whole street about how I had betrayed Lily and James and I drew my wand to curse him. He must have drawn his behind his back, and blew the street apart, and escaped in his animagus form.'_

' _Peter Pettigrew is an unregistered animagus?'_

' _Yes, he along with myself and James Potter succeeded at becoming animagi during our time at Hogwarts, Peter can transform into a common garden rat.'_

' _Why didn't you explain all zis at ze trial?'_

' _There wasn't a trial, when the aurors got there, they just led me away and stunned me once the muggles were out of sight. When I woke up I was in my cell at Azkaban and the only thing that kept me sane was the thought that I was innocent.'_

' _Very well, zat will do for ze time being, Gaston, administer ze antidote if you please.'_

Amelia exited the memory shaking her head

'Bloody Crouch, and damn that fool Fudge, I swear if I had any idea…Well, you did the right thing coming to me Alphonse. I think our best bet right now would be to pay a quick visit to the Offices of Child Welfare and International Magical Cooperation, fill the guardianship forms in and then bury them among the paperwork, maybe muddy the waters by adding in a routine complaint about the tournament officials at the IMC. Things are a madhouse right now so I doubt if anybody will notice until it's too late to stop it. Especially if we have the guardianship file restricted as pertaining to sensitive ICW matters, which they do. Even if the Black situation blows up in our faces, legally we can't arrest him now because as you know, magical France revoked the extradition treaty after that awful mess in 81, and his claim of asylum was perfectly legal under ICW regulations.'

'Damn blood purist bigots, zat muggleborn witch was defending 'herself.'

'I know that and you know that, but back then the hardliners had even more power than they do now, luckily the ICW put up enough of a fuss that they had to let her go. I don't blame your government for revoking extradition as a protest. But now's not the time to talk about that, let's get on with this.'

Alphonse smiled as he thought of that day, the paperwork had been filed at both the French and British ministry and he had no little doubt anybody in England would be able to stop the change of guardianship in time. Though the contents of the young man's file proved rather odd, and gave him more reasons to feel suspicious of Albus Dumbledore's actions. While Alphonse was satisfied he'd done what was necessary he knew he'd be in for a tough time explaining his actions. From Fleur's letters and the few contacts he'd spoken too he could tell that young Harry had an intense dislike of things being decided for him with no consideration being given for his own opinion. But he was confident that he would eventually manage to help him understand that he and Fleur had both acted only to make the best of a situation that by rights should have been explained to him and rectified years ago.

His musing was interrupted by a nudge from his wife and a chorus of cheers as he watched Harry and Fleur break the surface together holding a young red headed boy and Gabrielle between them. Alphonse rose from his seat and held a hand for his wife before walking swiftly towards the pair who were being fussed over by the school matron. As they moved closer Viktor Krum and Cedric Diggory appeared, both holding their respective hostages before all were huddled together and checked over.'

Alphonse paid little attention to the judges and as soon as he was able he drew Fleur aside noticing the scrapes and bruises marring her skin and asked,

' _What happened flower?'_

'Th _e grindylows attacked me papa, Harry came and helped me escape them and we worked together to finish the task.'_

'Th _at was a clever plan of his using Gillyweed extract, not that the bubblehead charm was a bad idea, and it worked quite well for you.'_

'Yes _, Harry owl ordered the plant, I suggested he make the potion to help im ingest it easier.'_

' _Well the tournament matters little flower, at least you're all safe now. I think it is time we all explained ourselves to Monsieur Potter though we both know he will be angry with us, I have permission to take both of you and Gabbi back home for a few days, officially for recovery and family business.'_

'Yes _papa, that is long overdue, I have hated having to keep secrets from him and the bond should be strong enough to protect his mind now. But he will need someone else he trusts beside him to help him adjust to this.'_

'Yes _, I have considered this and his godfather is waiting for us, but be aware this will not be easy for him. Is there anyone else close who might also assist?'_

Yes _papa, Hermione Granger, is closest friend would be a good choice. But how will you convince Hogwarts to release them both?'_

' _Leave that to me, while Dumbledore seems rather negligent in his interpretation of the laws, Minerva McGonagall isn't.'_

So later on that day after changing into dry clothes and being urged to pack a bag with a few days' worth of clothes, Harry found himself and Hermione being led into Professor McGonagall's office by Fleur.

The stern witch wore a determined expression on her face as she surveyed them.

'Alphonse contacted me and showed me some of what he's found, and for what it's worth I'm sorry for all that I'm responsible for, especially your first year with that infernal stone. I warned Albus, but he wouldn't listen to me, I don't know why he acted as he did, but I can only hope he'll finally see reason. Now Harry, I know what is coming will be a shock and you will not like a lot of what you're about to learn. Which is why I have allowed Miss Granger to accompany you. But know that what has been done recently was done only to help you and that you need never see those horrid excuses for relatives again.'

Harry was confused, ' _what is she talking about? Seriously, no Dursleys ever?'_

Fleur saw his confusion, 'soon Harry you will know everything, I promise. Now I know you áve used ze floo before, our destination is ze French embassy, from zere we can pick up our portkey, and now please follow me.'

Harry watched as both Fleur and Hermione took floo powder and were swept away in the green flames. Taking a pinch of the powder from a pot on the mantelpiece and called out the destination. 'French Embassy.'

As the spinning stopped Harry found himself falling out onto a rug in a large space full of fireplaces where witches and wizards were periodically entering and exiting. Fleur held out a hand and pulled him to his feet with a teasing smile on her face as Hermione beat away the soot on his shoulders.

'Zat was a bad landing 'Arry, we weel need to practice zat, ze trick is to keep walking as you exit.'

A jolly looking portly man came up to him and held out his hand to shake,

'Monsieur Potter and Mademoiselle Granger, it is an honour to finally meet you both in person, my name is Alphonse Delacour. I know zat you both must have many questions you want to ask and I will be happy to answer zem all, but for now, let us proceed for we only have a short time before Albus notices your absence from ze castle. Once across ze border he will not be able to interrupt our discussions without causing an international incident.'

' _What exactly is going on here? Why would he want to stop me leaving if McGonagall says its fine? What could be so bad for him?'_

He led the way to a nearby desk where a short exchange with a witch led to some parchment being scrutinised and a photo being looked at before the witch cast her gave over him before they were stamped and filed. Hermione and then Fleur were then asked to show their wands which were placed on a brass device which produced little slips of parchment, before their wands were given back. An empty bottle of butterbeer was passed over to Alphonse before they were waved through.

Harry turned to Hermione, 'why didn't the witch ask for your papers?'

'I'm a dual citizen Harry, all I need to do is show my wand which is registered in both countries.'

'Oh, that makes sense I guess.'

Alphonse led the way into another room nearby before beckoning all of them close and bidding them to touch the portkey which soon activated with the usual pulling sensation. Harry found himself flat on his back in the middle of an opulent room, a click nearby indicated the opening of a door and Harry watched as an unknown woman who looked like Fleur's elder sister walked in, and incredibly behind her came a very familiar looking black dog. The woman gazed down at him with a smile on her face before walking over and holding out her hand.

'Oui, ze sensation does take some getting used to Monsieur Potter. It is good to finally meet you, I am Apolline Delcaour, Fleur and Gabrielle's muzzer.'

Harry took the outstretched hand and was helped to his feet as he said, 'it's nice to meet you Madam Delacour.'

''None of zat mon garcon, you saved our Gabbi and ave done so much for Fleur.'

Sirius transformed into himself in that instance and pulled him into a hug, 'good to see you Pup, you definitely know how to pick them, a veela no less? Your old man would be proud of you.'

Harry blushed, 'will you ever be serious? And what are you doing here anyway?'

'Nope, as to why I'm here, you're in for a few nasty shocks so Alphonse thought it best if you had people you know you can trust around you to help keep you calm, which is why Hermione is here. He had me snuck over the channel and I claimed asylum here to get me away from the risk of getting kissed and because he needed my help to try and fix the mess a few other people have made. So now Fudge can't get me, and I'll be free to get the help I need even if I can't go back to England. But seeing how many idiots are in charge back there France is looking like the better option for me right now, especially if all the witches are as hot as the ones I've met so far.'

Alphonse glared at him, though Harry could see the amusement is his eyes.

'That's great news Sirius, but seriously, what is going on? Everyone seems to think I'm going to explode.'

'Come on through pup, it's time you learned just how mucked up things have gotten.'

Sirius led the way out of the room they'd landed in and Harry followed the others into a comfortable sitting room filled with tasteful and comfortable looking furniture. Harry sat down and watched as the others took their seats around him, Fleur and Hermione beside him on a couch as Alphonse turned to face him and passed over a phial of potion.

'Harry, zis is a mild calming draught, what you are about to 'ear is going to shock you a great deal. Zis potion will make it a little easier to keep your composure while we talk. Once we are finished, zere is a spell shooting range in ze room across ze 'all, we are under wards so nobody weel detect any spells you cast and I find it a very effective stress relief.'

Harry drank the proffered potion and felt the effects wash over him, ' _How bad can it be?'_ he thought

Alphonse sighed as he began to speak, 'Bon, now Arry, zis story begins a few months before you were born, a prophecy was given to Albus Dumbledore by a young seer being interviewed for a job at Hogwarts concerning ze birth of one who would hold the power to defeat ze dark lord at the end of July zat year. We don't know exactly what it says as Sirius urged your parents to keep ze words quiet for safety. But what we do know is zat a death eater overheard ze first few lines before being thrown out from ze pub where ze seer was staying at ze time and reported back to his master. A massive 'unt for mothers and children born around zat time began and ze dark lord in time turned his gaze to your family. You know what 'appened next, but what we now know because of your use of ze plea of Morpheus is ze means ze dar lord used to stave off death. From ze vision of your battle in ze chamber against ze shade zat you showed Fleur. It was made clear to her zat 'e 'as created several dark artefacts using portions of his own soul, zese are known as 'Orcruxes. As long as even one exists, ze dark lord can potentially be revived into a physical form. But most disturbing of all, is zat ze night e attacked you, we suspect zat a portion of is soul which by zen 'ad become so unstable by 'is use of zis magic was blasted off and took refuge in ze only living being in ze 'ouse, you.'

Harry's mind was reeling and despite the potion he choked, 'What! I've had a bit of him in me this whole time?'

Harry flashed back to when Dumbledore talked about how he suspected Harry got his parseltongue abilities and had a nasty suspicion.

'Dumbledore, he knows doesn't he? He's known all along?'

Alphonse nodded gravely, 'Oui, if 'e did not know all along, 'e would 'ave worked it out when you gave him ze remains of ze diary. But what we believe is zat 'e 'as been setting you up to act as a martyr, a tragic hero to be used on his own stage, self-fulfilling zis prophecy in ze way 'e believes it should be read, ready to be sacrificed at the opportune moment before 'e speaks 'is monologue at your gravesite.'

Harry felt as if the room was spinning as all of his respect for the old man drained away to be replaced with shear disbelief and horror before he felt Fleur's and Hermione's arms wrap themselves around him and he came back to the present.

'Why? Why would he do that? Surely there's another way to get that thing out of my head besides me getting killed?' Harry choked out.

Apolline spoke up, 'because in 'is arrogance 'e sees no ozzer way besides 'is own for dealing with ze problem. If 'e ad realised zat ozzers could assist 'im in fixing ze problems 'e 'imself 'as created zen 'e would 'ave known to seek out other experts on ze subject. Ze veela community for instance 'as for as long as zeese abominations 'ave existed we 'ave made it our errand to seek zem out and destroy zem as well as ze knowledge of zeir creation. We 'ave a means to remove ze 'orcrux from your scar and Fleur 'as already enacted it, 'owever it weel come at a price.'

Shear relief flooded Harry, the mere thought of any part of that monster in his head made him feel contaminated, and he asked,

'What is it? Considering she's effectively saved my life, it can't be that bad, can it?' Harry looked around at the adults, and at Fleur who looked very scared suddenly.

Fleur took a deep breath and began, 'Arry, veela can use a special power to bind zeir love to a single chosen mate, zeir mate gains a boost of power, speed and strength. Ze bond cannot form from nothing and so if ze chosen despises ze veela it would not work, but 'it does mean that both veela and zeir chosen can never truly love anozzer. Ze 'orcrux could not live inside a soul bound in such a way and so when I realised what lives in your scar after you used ze plea on me. I used the only means available to spare you from ze fate I believed zat ze 'eadmaster 'ad laid before you. But in doing so, I stole your chance to choose your own love, I could tell zat Hermione loves you. But I áve effectively taken you from her and I'm so sorry for doing zat, but ze alternative was far worse and I could never 'ave lived with myself for condemning you to zat.'

Harry was speechless as he tried to digest what he was hearing, turning his head to face every occupant in the room who all looked just as shocked as he felt.

'Is she right Hermione, do you…?' he asked Hermione in disbelief.

Harry saw her blush, 'yes, I never realised until she told me, but yes Harry I do love you, I think I always have. But, my mother always told me that if you truly love someone then you should be happy to see them happy, even in the arms of someone else. Otherwise it is nothing more than an obsession that will destroy you in the end. Fleur might have pushed herself between us, but she saved you from being used as a sacrificial lamb by Albus Dumbledore which is much worse and frankly unforgivable,' she finished with a glare.

'I….I…Really don't know what to say, I can't believe Dumbledore could be that callous and Mione, really I'm touched, if I'd known…. ' Harry said.

'It's alright Harry, you're in shock, and it'll take a while to process everything,' she said as she leaned into his side.

Harry turned to Fleur, 'why didn't you say anything before?'

Fleur sighed, 'I wanted to tell you 'Arry, I really did but I couldn't, because I did not know 'ow you would take eet and with ze tournament, and you already 'aving so much on your mind, you might 'ave collapsed. But more gravely, because zere are zose in ze castle who could steal ze truth from your mind. If ze wrong person were to read what I came to understand from ze visions you showed me, zen ze consequences could be disastrous. One benefit of ze bond is zat it affords protection from zose who would steal ze knowledge from you. Now ze bond is strong enough your mind should be safe.'

Harry looked around the room as his mind reeled at what he was hearing, he knew he should be feeling angry at her for effectively tearing him and Hermione apart and ruining his chances at choosing his own love. But when he thought of the suddenly increasingly more sinister sounding headmaster who'd been planning on sending him to his death instead of trying to fix things he couldn't bring himself to get angry at her. He knew that Fleur had acted for the best and that her reasons had been good ones. As even if he and Hermione had come together in the future, with the horcrux in his scar the outcome would have been inevitable and having Hermione mourning his early death was an image that made him shudder.

Harry sighed and turned to Fleur, 'it's alright Fleur I forgive you and accept this, you only did what you thought was right to save me, and while I hate people meddling in my life you did have a good reason for it. But try not to do something like this again, I don't know if I can take it.'

She broke down crying and Harry hesitated for a moment before pulling her into his arms. How long they stayed there like that, he wasn't sure but eventually Fleur drew away, a watery smile on her face.

'Merci 'Arry, I promise I weel never keep secrets such as zis again.'

Harry turned back to the adults who all looked quite relived and asked, 'did the Weasley's know any of this?'

Sirius answered, 'while Molly and Arthur have long been resolute supporters of Albus, I don't think he actually conspired with them, there's no way Molly or Arthur would have gone along with a plan that would knowingly send you to your death. Albus has always acted more like the puppet master, pulling strings from the shadows to get people to do what he wants to fulfil his schemes.'

Alphonse added, 'ze main problem lies in zat 'e no longer seems to see ze people around 'im as people, more as pieces in a game to be directed on a whim in order to win 'is war.'

'Can we deal with all of this in a better way than what he wants?'

'Oui, eet weel take some planning and ze involvement of more people, but I do believe zat we can solve ze issues zat plague you in a much more efficient way.'

'One last question, Professor McGonagall said that I'd never need to see the Dursleys again, how is that possible if Sirius can't legally take care of me.'

'Ah, now zat is because of a set of laws on ze French statute book, eef a minor is bound by a veela, zen ze family of zat veela are obliged to foster ze bound wizard until majority eef zeir is no guardian in place who can assist him in adjusting. So because of zis, you can now live here in ze summers and weel never need see zose batards again. With ze confused state of affairs with Sirius's status, we decided it would be best if we were to enact zat law with regard to you. Zis way, Albus cannot dispute your placement and send you back, nor weel he have any right to interfere in your affairs outside ze school. If 'e tries, zen you can legally withdraw from 'Ogwarts and attend a French school as you will be conferred French citizenship. Zough it may seem presumptuous of us, we did not wish for Albus to be able to interfere and Sirius weel be around as much as you wish zough 'e still needs to attend 'is therapy.'

Harry was shocked, but grinned, finally so many dreams were starting to come true.

'No, I don't mind at all, this is great, thank you Alphonse.'

'Bon, now I think zat will do for now 'Arry, why not go blow up some targets non? I shall send for you three when it is time for dinner.'


	7. Chapter 6

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note: Wow, again I'm shocked at the level of interest I'm getting here. But one common theme in the messages I'm getting at the moment is the desire for me to turn this into a Harry/Fleur/Hermione pairing. I was originally reluctant to do this, as it's a tricky concept to write properly without ending up with a citrus fest and/or turning Fleur into a crazy nymphomaniac but the least I can do is put it to a vote. If by the time I release the next chapter if at least half to three quarters of the reviews/pms' given for this chapter indicate favor for the idea then I'll start writing it in to the plot. Also, I know what Pottermore says about the family tree, stuff it. If JK can ruin her own universe with the OBHWF troupe we can restore it._

Chapter 6: Freedom and Revelations

Darkness shrouded the landscape Harry found himself standing in at that moment as mist veiled his sight. Harry had found himself in this landscape in the past, but somehow he knew that something was different, that something was about to happen that would change the status quo.

A noise of footsteps came from nearby, causing Harry to tense up, as the fog seemed to distort the direction the newcomer was entering from. But in time, a black cloaked figure stood before him, though Harry could not see its face he could feel the malice it gave off. It drew a sword and began to advance toward him. As Harry began to back away, he heard a female voice from above him.

'You must fight Harry, only you can destroy the intruder.'

A patch of light broke through the mist between Harry and the dark figure and dropping down, Harry saw the unmistakable sight of the sword of Gryffindor. Harry picked it up and faced the intruder down as two more figures appeared, their faces unmistakable due to the hours he'd spent in front of the mirror of erised in first year.

'Fight Harry, kick his ass, only then can you be free.'

'Take our power, use it, and defeat him once and for all.'

'You will never escape me Harry Potter.'

The figure lowered its hood and Harry saw the face that once shared Quirrell's head.

In a sudden lunge, Harry threw himself forward and caught the figure off guard as he attacked, the dark figure of Voldemort losing ground as their swords danced and with a flick of the wrist, Harry soon managed to disarm Voldemort before plunging the sword into his chest. The dark figure seeming to shrink in on itself, the hooded robe landing in a puddle, from within emerging a choked strangling cry as an ungodly creature, the dark caricature of a baby emerged, gasping for breath.

Harry stood in a moment of indecision, half of him wanted to reach down and help it, the other half of him wanted to strike it down, to destroy it utterly.

Just as he dropped the sword and reached down, the figures of his parents spoke again.

'He went too far years ago son, it is far beyond help.'

'You are free, go now and live, together you and Fleur have so much to achieve together.'

The fog lifted, and Harry watched as the sun rose above a beautiful landscape showing a vast Chateau standing on an unknown coast, and with a piercing screech, Harry looked up as an enormous eagle swooped down and grabbed the pathetic creature in its talons before flying away.

Harry turned to his parents, 'Is this real, or is it in my head or something?'

'Since when did that make it any less real Harry?' said Lily with a serene smile.

'You did just kill one of his anchors too son, and with the help of one seriously hot veela. You lucky lad you.'

Harry watched with a smile as his mum cuffed his dad on the back of his head as the scene began to fade and a series of images began to flash before him.

An odd room, full of shelves full of junk, a tiara sitting on an old stone bust.

A vault of some sort, full of gold and odd treasure, a golden cup sitting high on a shelf.

A giant snake, slithering through the halls on an old mansion.

An abandoned shack, barely standing, a single section of floor looking disturbed amongst what looked like a century's worth of dust.

An old locket sitting amongst odd Knick knacks on a display case in what appeared to be an abandoned sitting room of an ostentatious house.

Harry woke up panting, with a horrible headache amidst a torrent of unearthly screams that he wasn't making, and sat up in bed gazing around at the unfamiliar room before a door to his left opened admitting Fleur and Apolline with robes hastily thrown over their nightwear. Both women hurrying to his side as the elder veela held what looked like a black crystal with glowing runes etched into its surface. Harry clutched his head as the screaming grew to a crescendo and his scar split open, a black ichor dripped from it as a black mist formed into the figure of a snake like man for a moment.

Apolline spoke a few words in a strange language and held the stone in her hands close to the mist as it began to dissipate, the stone seeming to drink some of it before the figure vanished.

Harry slumped back, feeling exhausted as Fleur doffed her robe and climbed in besides him, pulling him into her arms after grabbing a cloth and wiping the ichor and blood from his head.

'Arry, are you alright?'

Harry took a moment to assess himself, his body felt like it had just been beaten up though his headache had dulled. Strangely, he could see perfectly even though he knew he wasn't wearing his glasses.

'Well I feel like I've been locked in a room with an angry bludger but my head doesn't seem too bad now, I can even see perfectly. But what just happened?'

Apolline smiled down at him,

'Ze bond has overcome ze 'orcrux in your scar and forced it out of you, it combined with your own subconscious giving you enough power to defeat ze piece of 'im within your soul. So you are now free of 'im and 'is influence. It must have been affecting more zan we realized if you can now see clearly, but zat can only be a good thing. Also, because I managed to use ze crystal I 'ad made to seal some of 'is essence, we now 'ave a sample of 'is magical signature which we can use to find ze ozzers. '

Harry remembered the strange visions he'd seen, 'I might have some information, I had to somehow fight the thing inside my head, I'm not sure how it all worked but after I killed it and the giant eagle I saw snatched it, I saw visions of a few places I've never been. A weird room full of junk, a bank vault of some kind, a giant snake moving around an old mansion, an abandoned shack somewhere and some old sitting room in a house I've never been to.'

Apolline and Fleur looked astonished, 'did you see what the items are 'Arry?'

'Yeah, except for the one in the shack, but it looked like somebody had done something to the floor, there was a whole heap of dust but it looked thinner in that spot, so whatever that one is it must be fairly small.'

'Bon, zat is wonderful, eef we can assemble a group to search, ze information you saw will be vital. So tomorrow eef it is not too much trouble, write zose details down. Now you need sleep Mon garcon, you 'ave suffered a terrible ordeal. Flower, keep your eyes on 'im I can trust you both to behave yourselves, eef he needs anything in ze night, wake me.'

'Oui maman, bon nuite,'

Too exhausted to even react to Apolline's wit, Harry fell back to sleep and didn't wake again until late the next morning, wondering if it had all been a strange dream. But as he felt Fleur shift beside him and looked down at her sleeping figure, he knew it was no dream. Stretching out, Harry still felt the aches of whatever had happened but felt a lot better than he had the previous night.

Fleur stirred beside him, gazing into his eyes with a look of concern.

'Morning 'Arry, are you feeling better?'

'Morning Fleur, I think so a lot better than last night anyway.'

'Good, now come downstairs when you're ready, maman probably 'as plans for after breakfast.'

Fleur got up and left the room, sending a teasing smirk his way as he couldn't help but ogle her body, despite his best effort at keeping his eyes on her face.

Getting out of bed, Harry grabbed some clothes and went into the adjoining bathroom to clean himself up and get ready. Slowly making his way downstairs, he wandered into the dining room he'd had dinner last night only to be squeezed to within an inch of his life as Hermione pulled him into her crushing embrace.

'Oh Harry I was so worried, the screams were awful, are you feeling alright, you've slept in fairly late? What happened to your glasses?'

Harry finally managed to get a word in edgewise as Hermione released him.

'Well, I'm a lot better than I was last night, and I don't know whether that thing in my head was responsible for my vision being the way it was or not, but I can see just fine now.'

'Oh Harry that's wonderful!' she gushed.

Hermione led him to the table before Apolline came in and walked over to him.

'Morning 'Arry, you must be ravenous after last night, Gerard will be in with your breakfast in a moment. An old colleague of my 'usbands wishes to speak to you today, Madam Bones says she'll visit this morning so once you've finished hurry to ze sitting room.'

'Am I in trouble?' Harry asked nervously.

'Non, she merely wishes to ask you a few questions about events that have 'appened to you at 'Ogwarts so far.'

Harry saw Hermione's look as one of the Delacours house elves came in with a big platter of breakfast which he put in front of Harry and guessed she wasn't too fond of the sight. But sudden hunger put the matter out of his mind, and he attacked the tray with gusto, the unfamiliar breakfast fare proving quite delicious.

Hermione led the way to the sitting room where Gabrielle was sitting on the couch watching television. Harry was quite surprised at the sight as he and Hermione took seats, as he didn't realize that they worked inside magical homes.

'I never knew that wizards used TV's Hermione. Wouldn't magic fry the electrics or mess with the signal?'

'Apparently the UK is the only major wizarding country without its own dedicated magical channel. I heard that the Americans figured out how to adapt televisions for magical use back in the 70's. I'm not sure how it all works but I think the TV's run off magic the same way as radios do.'

Harry was astonished, 'that's amazing, and I can't believe people could be stupid enough to not introduce it to the UK, I wonder if it's laws, or just no purebloods wanting to invest.'

Hermione shrugged, but the pair of them were distracted as Gabrielle noticed them and came to sit next to Harry, the little veela peppering Harry with questions that he could hardly understand. Eventually he was rescued as Apolline, Sirius, Fleur and Alphonse came in leading a rather no nonsense looking witch with familiar auburn hair and a monocle.

Apolline began a short exchange with her younger daughter who pouted adorably before turning the TV off and hurrying out of the room.

Alphonse grinned at the sight, 'it would seem zat you are charming my 'ole family 'Arry.'

Harry grinned before the stern faced witch faced him with her hand outstretched, 'Harry Potter, it's a pleasure to finally meet you though I do wish it were under better circumstances. Susan speaks quite highly of you.'

Harry relaxed as he shook her hand, 'thanks, nice to meet you too. Susan's nice, and unlike a lot of the others actually thinks before she says anything. I reckon she was one of only a few of the Puffs who weren't wearing one of Malfoy's badges.'

Amelia smiled, 'then some of the lessons I taught her stuck, and I'm glad to hear it though that isn't why I'm here today. Alphonse brought the information you were willing to share and what he found out from his own sources to my attention. I would simply like to verify a few facts before we can all plan a way to solve the mistakes that wrinkly old fart Dumbledore made.'

Harry was shocked at her language but agreed none the less and was intrigued as Alphonse brought in a strange bowl with runes carved on it.

''Arry, zis is a pensieve, it works in a similar way to ze plea of Morpheus however more zan one person can be under its affect at once and it does not require the subject to be asleep, unlike ze ritual you used. All you need to do is place your memory copies into ze basin and we can all see. Anything you choose to share would be appreciated.'

'I never could find that book again, even when I did look for it, I was thinking of using the plea on Madam Maxime, her and Karkaroff were the most vocal in their objection and she called me a liar.' Harry said

'She believes you now 'Arry, she was quite upset after ze first task,' said Fleur

Harry nodded and walked up to where Alphonse had set the basin up and began adding his memories to it, starting with the same ones he'd shown Fleur before adding a few others about the Dursleys and the immediate aftermath of his selection as a champion that he'd kept out of the plea.

Sitting back down, Harry watched as all the adults, Hermione and Fleur all went into the pensieve to view the memories. How long he sat there he wasn't sure but eventually they all emerged with looks of shock and disgust on their faces. Fleur and Hermione both flew into his arms sobbing uncontrollably, while Amelia glowered for a moment before turning to face him.

'That was bloody awful Harry, I knew that crazy old fool was up to something, but that was truly beyond belief. I don't know if he's gone senile, or if he's just so arrogant that he can't see any way other than his own for dealing with things. You shouldn't have been involved with any of those 'adventures' and if I have my way I'll have his bony ass in a prison cell before you can say sherbet lemon once I get back to England and see what he's got to say for himself. Those bloody muggles are criminals and since they committed crimes against a wizard that means they'll have to face the Wizenagmot once I have them arrested. Fudge and Malfoy will be a bit trickier to pin anything on but they'll both pay sooner or later for their part in all of this, as they must be in this up to their necks.'

Sirius looked outraged, 'I can't believe I trusted that old prick, prank him Harry, and prank him til he begs for mercy, not that he deserves it.'

Harry thought he could see feathers growing on Apolline's arms as she struggled to form words and Alphonse had lost his trademark jovial personality as he surveyed his new ward.

'Zat was truly beyond belief, ze fact you are still sane is a miracle. I promise zat we will do all in our power to ensure zis madness stops. We will make zat cochon talk, we will make him tell us all he knows of ze dark lord, we will see zose abominations destroyed.'

Harry looked at the two witches still sobbing into his shoulder and back at Fleur's parents before asking.

'So where do we start?'

Apolline walked over to him and laid a hand on his cheek, 'for once 'Arry, let ze adults do ze fighting, you 'ave done far more than anyone could ever have ze right to ask of you. But zat does not mean we wish to smother you, if you have good ideas let us know. Right now, you need to 'eal and get ready for ze final task. Thanks to ze actions of those foolish men, we know you will be caught up in all zis, but we will do all we can to minimize ze risk.'

She kissed his cheek and stepped back as Alphonse said,

'We need zat fool Fudge out of office, surely zere must be someone competent who could replace him.'

Amelia sighed, 'easier said than done Alphonse, Malfoy is a slippery devil and unless we knew someone who had first-hand knowledge of where he kept the skeletons in his closet we'd never be able to get a charge to stick as we haven't got enough even with Harry's memories, and as long as he's free Fudge can count on his support.'

Harry added a point 'What about a house elf, I tricked him into freeing Dobby, surely he must have seen a fair amount of Lucy's dirty dealings.'

Sirius looked grim, 'only the Wizenagmot probably wouldn't take his word over the pricks.'

Harry grinned devilishly and Hermione looked into his face and muttered, 'oh no, here we go again.'

'What if we write an article based on what he says and leak it to the Prophet? Rita would just eat it up. Plus Fudge is responsible for a lot of other mess ups as well that would make perfect tabloid fodder, Dementors attacking me, Hagrid getting arrested for no reason.'

Everyone looked shocked, but Sirius grinned, 'best prank ever, but how in the name of Merlin would you get Skeeter to cooperate?'

'She owes me a few favors right now, so I might as well call them in and use them while I can.'

Amelia looked stunned, 'You got Rita Skeeter to do a deal with you? Don't tell me what you've got on her, it's best if I don't know as that way officially I can't arrest you for blackmail. Unofficially however, bloody well done, you should have been a Slytherin.'

Harry grinned, 'the hat wanted to put me there, only I'd met Malfoy junior and after he told me that's where he was going and then got sorted there, I told the hat to put me anywhere else.'

Hermione looked stunned, 'you never told me that Harry?'

Harry shrugged, 'it never came up, plus Ron would have flipped if he knew, you know what he's like with Slytherins, the fact I nearly was one….'

'True enough,'

Fleur smiled, 'ze signs 'ave been clear zat behind zose beautiful eyes is a very devious mind.'

Which was later on put to good use writing several articles for Rita about Hagrid and Fudge, Harry deciding to leave Malfoy until he went back to England so he could find Dobby. After being checked over by the adults, Alphonse dispatched them to the local owl post office for delivery.

Fleur entered the study where Harry was using to write up details of what he saw in his visions after dinner that night and sat beside him.

''Arry?'

Harry put his quill down and turned to face Fleur, 'yes Fleur.'

''Ow did you manage it all? Most would 'ave broken or turned to darkness long before, but you did not. 'Ow?'

'I never knew really, it all just happened and I hardly had time to think about it really. Every time something crazy happened it always seemed to be a case of life or death. Maybe I'm just stubborn and I didn't want to give Vernon or Riddle the satisfaction.'

Fleur laughed softly but her face slowly regained the serious expression, ''ave you ever zought of what you will do after you finish 'Ogwarts?'

Harry felt stumped, 'I haven't thought too much into it, at the rate I'm going, just surviving long enough to graduate will be a big achievement.'

'Don't you ever say zat again 'Arry Potter, do you 'ear me? You're going to survive zis and ze dark lord shall plague us no more.'

'Well politics is looking more appealing, looks like a dirty job but someone has to do it.'

Fleur beamed at him, 'zat is better mon chevalier.'

Harry and Fleur spent the next few hours speaking of mainly inconsequential things, Harry learning a lot about how she'd grown up, hear early years at Beauxbatons and a lot of her experiences as her veela allure matured. Harry in tern opened up a lot more about his early experiences before he'd gone to Hogwarts, finally admitting he'd been forced to dumb down his schoolwork to avoid trouble with the Dursleys and that unconsciously he'd kept himself in the habit at Hogwarts. Fleur finally persuading him that it was no longer necessary and that Divination was completely useless, Harry resolving to drop it and pick up ancient runes.

Later on, Harry found Sirius and asked him for a private word.

'Sirius do you think I'm doing the right thing here?'

'Yes, Harry I do, you've given valuable information into the hands of people who unlike Albus actually intend to do things with it.'

'It isn't just that, look at Hermione, I know Fleur only did what she thought was right to help me but look what it's done to Hermione. Yes, she's saying it's alright but is it really?'

Sirius smirked, 'you know, you'd probably get away with marrying both of them if that's what you wanted.'

Harry felt shock, 'in what seriously messed up way is that even legal? Bigamy is still a crime isn't it?'

'In the muggle world, and generally in the wizarding world too, yes. But sometimes when Ancient houses with Wizenagmot seats are on the brink of extinction like yours, exemptions are granted to allow heirs to marry more than one witch so that more children can be born faster. I'm not saying you have to do it mind you, but there is that choice available.'

Harry couldn't believe his ears, 'I have a seat? That law sounds seriously medieval, there's no way she'd go for that.'

Sirius smiled knowingly, 'Yeah, your family's always had a seat, not that James got to make much use of it and don't be so quick to judge. It has advantages in your case, but thankfully you're both young so there's no need to be hasty on this. For all you know, Hermione might get over the loss and find somebody else and be happy with them. You and Fleur look to be getting along well enough despite the shaky start, so just keep your eye on Hermione. Don't mention the law, but if after a while she hasn't got over you and Fleur is open to the idea, then why not. You know those damn Dementors might have rendered me unable to have children, I don't know yet, but if that happens I'm willing you all my assets and the Black seat, anything to keep it out of Lucy's spawns ugly ferret paws.'

'What? They can do that? How's he related anyway?'

Sirius shrugged, 'just about all the pureblood houses are related somehow if you go back far enough, and Cissy, his mum was my cousin while Dorea, your grandmother was my aunt. But back to the key point, if it turns out I can't have kids which can happen if you're stuck with them long enough, it would probably be best if you did take a second wife. A muggleborn Lady Black would probably make my mother turn in her grave and make sure that idiot Draco never got a single knut of my money.'

Harry was speechless as he considered the possibilities and so Sirius kept going.

'Don't worry about it, I don't plan on dropping dead anytime soon but it is good to have these things out in the open. Just keep going with what you've doing, Hermione should be alright but if she isn't and if you both want to go for it and Fleur is open to it then why not? You wouldn't be the first young notable in this position after all, the precedents are quite clear so the Wizenagmot would probably be on your side.'

'Definitely something to think about?'

'Good lad,' encouraged Sirius.

Harry walked out and by coincidence found Hermione not too far away who asked,

'What were you asking Sirius?'

Harry shrugged, 'just a few things about the Wizenagmot and how they might apply to me especially now with this whole bonding business.'

'Oh, that makes sense I guess, I'll have to check the legal books.'

Harry smiled at her, 'thanks Mione, but enough about me, are you alright? None of this can be easy on you.'

Harry noticed the sadness in her eyes even though she tried to put up a smile.

'Harry, I don't blame Fleur for this, as much as it hurts me to let you go, if she hadn't done what she had you would have died or worse been possessed eventually. Losing you to the headmasters so called greater good would have been far worse than anything Fleur could do. Yes, we'll both probably wander what if in the future, but thanks to Fleur, you have a future and we should at least be grateful for that.'

Harry drew her into his arms, 'don't ever change Mione, I don't think anybody could ever be that noble, to see you lose that would be unbearable.'


	8. Chapter 7

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note: Sorry about the delay in releasing this but I've had several other things to handle in the meantime. Wow, I have never ever seen such an enthusiastic response to anything I've ever written. This fic has now generated over twice my previous best for reviews and there's still a bit left to go in it. I can now safely say that based on readership response, the vote result is a very clear no on making this a threesome pairing. I agree with quite a few of the responses quoting reasons why or why not and enjoyed reading them. Some of my more politically or legally savvy readers might be spotting plot holes in my work and I will admit to them. But remember this is fanfiction, not a political essay, there's no way to get all the details absolutely perfect and mass audience appeal is a factor to consider here. Lastly, a few of you might recognize the fic I loosely based parts of this chapter on, but for now, on with the show as Harry and the girls finally return to Hogwarts after their trip to France._

Chapter 7: Confrontations and Reunions

After bidding farewell to the elder and younger Delacours as well as Sirius, Harry, Fleur and Hermione finally returned to Hogwarts the next morning. Harry was feeling calmer despite all that had been revealed. Though the weight of all that he had been told was still shocking, the fact he had help to turn to and promises of immediate action on a lot of the main causes of his troubles was helping a great deal. Sirius, Apolline and Alphonse had all made him promise not to try any more freelance sleuthing unless he had no other option and the fact that adults were fussing over him in a way that the Dursleys by all rights should have done from the day he'd been placed there was a novel experience for him. All in all, Harry finally was beginning to feel he was part of a family in a way that not even the Weasley's had quite managed.

Harry stumbled as he landed in Professor McGonagall's office but for once did not trip head over heels before dusting the soot off his robes, Fleur teasingly complimenting him as Hermione arrived behind him.

'Bon, zat was much improved mon chevalier.'

'Having you and Hermione drill it into me helped, the Weasley's weren't the best teachers.'

Professor McGonagall looked up from what looked to be a pile of essays and greeted them,

'Ahh, Mr Potter, Miss Granger, Mademoiselle Delacour, welcome back, I trust you all enjoyed your time in France?'

Harry smiled, 'yes Professor, it all isn't quite so raw now at least and France was lovely, I'm definitely looking forward to going back there for the summer.'

Hermione nodded, 'it was all a shock professor, but things are getting a little better now everything's out in the open.'

'Good I'm glad to hear that, now Miss Granger, Mr Potter, Professor Dumbledore wants to see you both after dinner.'

Harry felt the defiance rise in him, and he reached into his pocket for the envelope he'd been given to pass over if he was summoned and remembered the lines he'd been prompted to say.

'With respect Professor and while I can't necessarily speak for Hermione, I feel disinclined to acquiesce unless this is an official school related matter with you yourself present as our head of house as is detailed under the Hogwarts Charter. My guardians also wish for me to pass along this message to the senior professors of the school faculty and inform you that they themselves will be calling on Professor Dumbledore this afternoon. Any insistence on him seeing me alone will be seen as an act of intimidation and abuse of power.'

Professor McGonagall opened the envelope and quickly scanned the letter, her face clearly showing shock as she read, finally she spoke again.

'Mr Potter, you can rest assured that I will do all in my power to ensure Albus does not exceed his authority again and cooperates fully with Monsieur and Madam Delacours requests. While you have been subjected to an intolerable level of his interference during your life I'd like to think he isn't beyond all hope of redemption. Now I believe that will be all for the time being. You'll find that lunch is about to be served and Mr Longbottom will have copies of the work you've missed, so off you go and enjoy the rest of your day.'

'Merci Professor, 'Arry doesn't need more trouble, any 'elp to keep 'im out of it would be appreciated by me and my parents.'

Harry blushed, 'you make me sound like some sort of hooligan Fleur.'

'Non 'Arry, it is just ze truth, it is no use denying it.'

'She's right Harry.'

The professor smiled at the byplay between her young lion and his newly minted bond mate and watched them leave her office alongside Miss Granger before letting out a sigh.

' _Oh Albus, what have you done? To drive young Harry to the point of his new guardians considering pulling him out of Hogwarts altogether? It's unthinkable to even consider losing such a family as the Potters.'_

Professor McGonagall dismissed the trio before writing a few letters herself.

' _Young William Weasley, Kingsley and old Algie should be of great use if Albus does cooperate, and he will sooner shave his beard and cut his hair short than allow Harry to be taken out of Hogwarts even if it means giving the Delacours the concessions they have demanded.'_

Oblivious to his Professors musings Harry led Fleur and Hermione to the great hall and to seats at the Gryffindor table near Neville while the twins were regaling the crowd with some humorous anecdote about a recent prank involving Professor Snape's robes being enchanted to play the Imperial March as he walked.

'…And then we hear the greasy bugger coming down the corridor, music blaring and he sees us and says.'

'You will remove this ridiculous spell at once.'

'Lee and Alicia both crack up laughing because he sounds just like Darth Vader the way he said it.'

'And he goes, you think this funny? I find your pitiful excuse for humour disturbing.'

'Then old Tofty shows up, takes one look and then cancels the spell before getting everyone inside. He only gave us the one detention too, pretty decent of the old boy as I swear his mouth was twitching as he looked at Snape.'

Harry had been laughing along with the others but was then noticed by the others around him as the twins began to rally.

'Harry old boy.'

'Back from your little break already? Where've you been?'

'Off on holiday with the lovely French witches and Hermione to boot, you lucky devil?'

'You seem to have lost your glasses too, whatever you've been doing is definitely helping you.'

'Tell us mere mortals your secret, you'd probably get the OM for it.'

Harry had been slightly dreading coming back, not sure what everybody would say when the word of what had been going on began to leak. But knew that the twins could be trusted for the most part, except when it came to food and drink, though he lowered his voice as Lavender and Parvati were within earshot and both were visibly ogling him as they never had up to that point.

'Short break in France for my health after the second task, the Delacours had a few questions they wanted to ask me as well. Hermione was there for moral support, plus she speaks the language way better than I ever will.'

'Being born there and living till you're ten helps Harry, but you'll get it eventually.' Reassured Hermione.

'Why would you need to learn French anyway? It's not like you live there,' asked Ron

'Actually yes I will now, a least for part of the year, the Delacours have offered a formal alliance and are going to foster me until I turn 17.I'm still finding it a little surprising that they went that far, but I definitely like it,' responded Harry.

Ron was shocked as was everyone else, 'what, you're leaving? You're actually going to Beauxbatons? Why, what about us, we're supposed to be your friends.'

Harry sighed and felt Fleur's hand on his arm and was grateful for it, 'I'm not transferring Ron, Alphonse and Apolline both told me they won't pull me out of here unless there's no other way. A whole heap of stuff about how I got put at the Dursleys to begin with as well as all the crazy stuff we've gotten involved with in the last few years was completely messed up. I've spent the past few days spilling the beans about everything that's happened to me and what's going to happen is the best way. The only way to deal with the fostering properly and legally, and to make sure meddling buggers like Fudge can't stop it was to do this.'

Ron looked like he was only just keeping his composure, but nodded and said, 'I guess that makes sense, but seriously Harry, don't leave us all out of the loop like that.'

'I'll try not to Ron, but there really wasn't time on this one, the last few days have all been a bit of a blur, I'm still getting my head around it all to be perfectly honest.'

Harry feared Ron's jealousy would rear its ugly head but strangely for his red haired friend Ron stayed silent as he digested Harry's words before he finally said.

'That's pretty messed up Harry, I'm not sure I'd want to be in your shoes right now even for a vault full of cash.'

The astonishment must have shown on his face and the gasps were audible around him as Ron kept going.

'What, why is everyone looking at me like that?'

Fred was the one to answer, 'you're kind of well-known for flying off the old handle little bro and Harry going off to live with veela would definitely set you off..'

'Remember the champion's selection?' George asked.

Ron looked embarrassed.

'Alright I get your point, you aren't the first who's said it, I wanted the chance to win that cash so I could finally get some new stuff and Harry said he wasn't going to go for it. Yes I screwed up badly, but I paid for it just as badly. Besides when you think about it, with all Harry gets sucked into with the crazy stuff we've been involved in, it's about damn time he got something good out of it all, especially if it means getting him away from those muggle pigs, you guys were both there, you saw what they were like. Besides, I'd rather not get burned to a crisp if I say the wrong thing.'

'I would never do zat to 'Arry, e is too 'andsome to burn and all men say ze wrong zing sometimes.'

Harry felt himself blush again as he felt Fleur's hand on his arm as everyone around them laughed, but soon enough eyes drew back to Ron as everyone, even Fleur was stunned by his words before Neville spoke up.

'Merlin, who are you and what have you done with Ron Weasley?'

Ron shrugged, 'I'm still me, I guess things just happened, nobody stays the same forever.'

'True, that,' said Fred.

'What's gonna happen to the muggles now anyway Harry?' asked Ron.

'I've been told they're going to be arrested, don't know when though.'

'About time, seriously mate.'

Lunch ended and Fleur kissed Harry affectionately to more surprised looks and a few whistles from nearby bystanders before walking off to her lessons, Ron hardly batting an eye as he followed along with Neville and Hermione.

Harry found it almost surreal to be back in classes again after everything that had happened to him over the past few days but comforting in a way as it felt good to be doing something normal for a change. But oddly enough he found his concentration improved, and was the first in the class behind Hermione to grasp new spells.

A few hours later on, Apolline and Alphonse Delacour arrived and made their way up to the Headmasters office, the gargoyle obviously was expecting them as it moved aside without a password. Professor Dumbledore was obviously looking strained as he was sitting at his desk reading a letter that both recognised instantly.

' _So, Harry was summoned here, just as I thought he would be,'_ mused Alphonse.

'Ahh, Monsieur and Madam Delacour, what brings you to my school today? I was just reading the letter you sent back with Harry. May I say that I am rather shocked that you are both considering the course of action you have detailed.'

Alphonse sighed, 'Albus, we saw 'is memories and Sirius was quite eager to cooperate, we've guessed what you've been planning for 'im. 'E isn't safe 'ere in Britain, and 'e won't be truly safe until ze dark lord 'as been utterly destroyed. Men and women 'ave willingly sacrificed zeir lives to preserve freedom zroughout ístory and zat is fine, and noble even. But callously intending to martyr Arry deliberately without ever considering alternative plans which could spare 'im 'is beyond ze pale. It is a course of action we cannot tolerate and if need be we will take action to stop it.'

Dumbledore looked grave, 'what would you have me do Alphonse? Tom has inadvertently lodged a horcrux in his scar and as long as Harry lives, Tom is tethered to life. Did you all truly think I desired this? That I made these decisions lightly, I spent years tracking down every tome on horcrux lore I could find, travelled to distant lands seeking the lost knowledge of their making and destruction to try and find a way to spare him. I even tried to exorcise the fragment myself at the end of his first year, had I continued the process I used it would have killed him. Which would you choose when the fate of the world is at stake? The needs of the many or the needs of the one? Through his sacrifice, tens of thousands of innocent lives could be spared.'

Apolline growled, 'eet is no longer necessary to choose Albus, 'Arry is now free of 'im and 'is influence. Because of Fleur's choice to bind 'erself to 'im, 'Arry shall now 'ave ze future and ze family you 'ave long sought to deny 'im. 'E is a treasure and Fleur chose very well in 'im. We look forward to many 'appy years with 'im as our son in law. '

Dumbledore was shocked, 'What! It's truly gone? How is that even possible? No living being has ever survived, I checked every record I could find, unless…Of course, a knighthood bond, to think the answer could truly be that simple. No doubt, everyone including myself has underestimated the veela community on occasion much to our cost. I never did get to meet the clan elders through the years so I never found out what the veela community knew of such magic. Though the bond being the key to his salvation does make sense, the horcrux was not placed with deliberate intent and its hold would be weaker and therefore the bond would overwhelm it when combined with Harry's own natural mental defences. Which would be stronger than normal as they would have had to subconsciously adapt to keep the horcrux in check and prevent it possessing him over the years of its presence.'

Alphonse gave a small smile, glad to see that Albus was finally admitting he was only human after all.

'You're not all knowing Albus, no man or woman is, even ze most gifted seer, you don't need to keep all this to yourself and I believe you've got far too much on your plate with ze roles you undertake in society. We don't truly 'ate you, all we want is what's best for 'Arry and Fleur so and we believe we can 'elp. 'Owever in exchange we do want a few concessions.'

Dumbledore braced himself, 'I will hear you out, I know my conduct of late hasn't been as it should be and perhaps I am overburdened, I do see your point Alphonse. What do you propose we do to solve the matter at hand?'

Apolline began, 'I 'ave already begun to reach out to ze veela elders of ze French clans for 'elp and zey 'ave promised zeir expertise in devising a means to defeat 'im once and for all. Once I explained the situation they were quite keen and zey 'ave said zeir initial research findings are promising and zey believe ze method zey are considering should work if zey are given access to both ze intact and destroyed horcruxes and ze ever locked room.'

'The locations are proving elusive, I have spent the last two years trying unsuccessfully to track them down with the few clues I have been able to find. As far as the ever locked room goes, that could possibly be arranged. I do know a few unspeakables who would probably be eager to help once the situation and your clan elders solution is explained.'

'Bon, ze elders will be pleased but as far as ze locations go, zat will no longer be a problem, as when ze fragment in 'Arry was dying after 'e destroyed it in 'is mind, it showed 'im a series of images zat 'e believes are ze locations, and what ze abominations are,' commented Alphonse.

Dumbledore was astonished as he read the list before checking the notes he'd been keeping, realising that the list corresponded almost exactly to most of the horcruxes he'd been suspecting.

'This is incredible magic, nothing like this was ever recorded. To think we are witnessing something so profound as to rewrite the laws of magic as we know it.'

'Souls are meant to be whole, even if the soul is fragmented with the usage of orcruxes all the pieces are still linked together. We both believe zat ze images 'Arry saw in 'is dream was a product of the linkage between ze piece in 'is mind and ze ozzer orcruxes. Few outside ze clans ever saw zeir research on ze 'orcruxes and for good reason, 'Arry's situation is quite rare, possibly unique as few dark wizards have dared to use horcruxes in recent times and few veela go so far as to use ze bond to bind a wizard to themselves. No dark wizards have been recorded as ever having made more than two of these monstrosities as far as ze records show,' said Apolline.

'Incredible, and I am most impressed with your logic Madam Delacour, to think that the answer was so close to hand all this time. But what of his relatives? No doubt you have taken action yourselves.'

Apolline growled, 'zose monsters deserve nothing but ze fiercest justice ze courts can legally give out. Amelia 'as promised us immediate action and we 'ave no doubt zat she will keep 'er word. Why you would condemn zat sweet boy to such an 'ell as living with zose cochons I will never understand.'

Dumbledore took in the sight of feathers sprouting on the forearms of the angry veela and for his own safety began to speak.

'While the dark lord was supposedly dead to the world, many of his followers were still at large and some were actively looking for him and eager to avenge themselves on his killer. The ministry could not truly be trusted to guarantee Harry's safety as Tom was known to have infiltrated sleeper agents into various departments and Sirius had just been apprehended and was therefore ineligible to take him in. I invoked the strongest magical protection I knew of using the residual magic of his mother's sacrifice which required a blood relative of hers to anchor it. Though I knew he would face hardships at their hands, I could at least be sure he would be safe from avenging death eaters. If he'd gone to the Longbottoms as per the instructions in his parents will after Sirius's arrest, then he would have been caught up in the attack when they were tortured into insanity by the death eaters.'

'Zat is all well and good Albus, but you did nothing to save him from their wrath, you must áve realized zey would avenge themselves on 'im? It is a miracle 'e is still as sane as 'e is, any lesser boy would 'ave sworn revenge on all muggles. You see ze parallel between zem non?' prompted Alphonse.

Dumbledore sighed, 'yes, it is a pattern I have seen and heard of far too often for my own comfort but what's done is done, what you would have me do? Have them all kissed by Dementors? Hang them all from the nearest gibbet? Or introduce them to Madam Guillotine? Bloody vengeance won't undo the suffering they caused?'

Apolline said 'Nozzing so spectacular Albus, you 'ave strings to pull in ze ministry? Use zem, a fair trial and a just punishment under ze eyes of ze law.'

'Very well, it shall be done, the other demands you wrote in your letter I can accommodate without issue, we have begun to deal with most of them already as Harry brought them to my attention himself and I was prompted to investigate. I can easily arrange extra tutoring for Harry to assist him in preparing for the third task as I know a capable man who is known to Harry and trusted by him who would be very eager for a short term teaching assignment. No doubt your daughter and Miss Granger will both be eager to assist in this as well. As for your suggestion as to assembling more skilled help in assisting in the matters facing us, I can see the wisdom in this, though we will need to ensure secrecy is kept at all cost. If knowledge of our efforts to destroy the horcruxes were to leak to Tom it could prove disastrous. I will consult with a few others to consider who would be the best to recruit.'

'Bon, zen zat shall be all for today Albus, zough ideally we would see you punished for your actions at ze first opportunity. We live in a far from ideal world and 'ave much to deal with to cleanse it of ze dark lords filth. Ultimately you will 'ave to make a choice, 'Ogwarts or ze ministry or ze ICW, you spread yourself to thin attempting all three.'

'Perhaps you are correct, a thought worth considering if war is truly on the horizon at any rate. I will keep you both no longer and look forward to a better future for both Harry and your daughter.'

As the two left his office Albus Dumbledore sighed at the mournful tune Fawkes was singing.

'Yes, perhaps you're right old friend, but I cannot retire yet, not until I know my last task in the world is done. Though perhaps it is time to begin to set my affairs in order, I just hope he may one day find it in his heart to forgive the foolishness of an old man.'

Crossing to the floo, Albus threw the green powder into the flames and stuck his head in.

'Severus, and you too Minerva. Come to my office please at your earliest convenience, we have a great deal to discuss.'


	9. Chapter 8

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note: I really, really hate internet trolls, seriously don't people have anything better or more productive to do with their time than pull stunts like this. But surely by now the site admins could have figured out the various pen names were the same person or people as I doubt this clown is the only one. Still, one nasty review threatening to ban me instead this particular troll trying to copy and repost my work isn't too bad so I guess I got off lightly compared to others. I've seen him copy lots of whole fics and then re-post them though that usually gets spotted pretty quickly. With any luck that will be the last of it, and I can finish this work in peace._

Chapter 8: Loving and Murder

'Again Harry.'

Harry faced his opponent down, watching his wand warily, waiting for him to make the first move. He'd faced that wand down before repeatedly over the course of the Easter holidays and knew the fight would be rough, when it looked like his opponent wasn't going to attack, Harry fired his first volley.

'Stupefy! Reducto! Incarcerous! Lumous solemn!'

Harry chained his spells together and ducked sideways to avoid a barrage of multi-coloured beams of light heading his way in retaliation, coming to a halt besides the wall and spotting another stunning spell coming he cast.

'Protego!'

With a sound like a bell chime the stunner glanced off the translucent air in front of him harmlessly and Harry cast a wary eye on his opponent before firing again.

'Expelliarmus! Incussus! Locomotor Mortis!'

Incredibly the leg locker curse hit true and his opponent was wobbling dangerously. Before Harry could fully capitalise and finish his opponent off cleanly several books began flying straight for his head forcing him to throw himself sideways and breaking his concentration soon blacking out as he never noticed the read beam coming towards him out of nowhere.

Harry felt the world come back into focus groggily as Remus helped him to his feet, the former professor had been training him hard for weeks, ever since the headmaster had arranged for lessons after he'd returned from France.

'That was much better Harry, spell chaining, unorthodox use of basic charms, your dodging and shielding are getting better and you even hit me with that leg locker curse. You're going to be a nightmare to fight with a few more years' experience under your belt.' Praised Remus.

Harry gasped for breath and groped for one of the water bottles and drank the contents thirstily, 'you still got me in the end.'

'Years of practice in fighting dirty Harry, seven years at school alongside your father and godfather dealing with the likes of Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy taught us all a lot about opponents who don't fight fair and how to deal with them. With more practice and a greater variety of spells you would have undoubtedly beaten me in the end, you move like a snake. Now how is that lovely lady of yours progressing?'

Harry smiled, 'I'm glad this isn't going to be a duelling contest, I'd have no chance fighting her, I've never seen anyone who can move that fast. When we tried those dodging exercises I never even hit her once and she got me three times and her stinging hexes hurt.'

Remus grinned, 'veela have always needed to be able to fight to protect themselves Harry and it'd take a special woman to be able to handle you, you're a very lucky man. Padfoot had a lot to say when I spoke to him.'

'I know, I still find it incredible that she did what she did for me, saving my life and all. But at least I've got the time to figure it out. Did the team find any more of the horcruxes professor?'

Remus grinned, 'we figured out the room you saw was actually in Sirius's parents' house in London. It took a bit of cloak and dagger to smuggle him into and out of the country to get past us the wards on the house, but we pulled it off. It was Salazar Slytherins own locket, terrible tragedy how it got into his house in the first place. It seems Sirius's brother Regulus stole it from its hiding place and died in the attempt, leaving the Black family elf the instructions to destroy it. Only he never managed it as the locket is sealed to a parseltongue command. Luckily the veela elders' efforts required the locket intact or we'd have needed you to try and open it to have a chance at destroying it and that's assuming you can still speak the language.'

'So that makes out of the list I drew up, two found, one just a matter of time, the tiara that's still a mystery and the snake,' Harry guessed.

'Hopefully Albus can get that order from the Wizenagmot in the next few days. Even goblins must abide by that it follows the standard legal process.'

Harry shrugged and the professor motioned to a rack on the wall, 'swords now Harry?'

Harry walked to the rack and lifted down the dulled training blade and gave it a few practice swings. While he'd been very grateful when Professor Lupin had come to help him train at the start of the Easter holidays, some of what his old Defence against the Dark Arts professor had suggested had made little sense to him in terms of how it could help him.

'Why do I need to know how to handle a sword again?'

Remus answered, 'a few reasons, firstly it's good exercise that will help you get into better shape by the time the task comes around. Secondly, trying to aim an overpowered severing charm at a moving target is a tricky business and so it would help if you've got another option to hand if you end up having to fight the snake head on. Thirdly, most death eaters are useless without a wand and don't usually have any other weapons on them. Even someone with only a little training could cause havoc if they got in amongst their ranks. Lastly, fencing has traditionally been part of the gentleman's education which you are going to need to catch up on so that you can help to solidify your public image as a well brought up young notable amongst the more conservatively minded Wizenagmot members.'

'Where'd you learn professor?'

'Your father and Sirius both needed a sparring partner to help keep up their practice and Peter was useless at it. So I basically picked up the skill by default, I'm no expert but I should be able to at least help you handle a sword properly and start to learn the basic forms.'

Harry drew on the face mask and stood ready and waited before Remus moved in for the attack. Parrying away his opponent's incoming blade, Harry moved through the forms he'd begun to learn and slowly began to gain ground. Spotting an opening in Remus's defence Harry lunged forward but had to quickly back away as he realised the trap he almost fell into. Both fighters danced back and forth for a time before Harry quickly managed to disarm his opponent with the new move he'd been taught at his last session, Remus's sword flying out of his hands to land on the floor with a clatter.

'Well done Harry that was outstanding, while I doubt you'll ever fight death eaters in a swordfight but having some skill with a blade will be of great use to you. Who knows, you could always look for a club in France?'

'Something to think about for later anyway,' said Harry.

'I think that will be enough for today Harry,' Finished Remus.

The pair walked out of the room and Harry watched astonished as the door turned back into seemingly solid wall.

Remus commented as they walked away from the wall 'If the marauders ever knew of that room, we'd probably hardly ever have been caught. I think we might have stumbled across it inadvertently once or twice. I seem to remember your father and Sirius both telling me stories of hiding things in a mysterious room on this floor that they didn't want found by teachers and prefects, only never being able to go and get them later.'

'Centuries worth of students probably did the exact same thing Remus, I bet there's a thousand years' worth of stuff hidden in there,' said Harry.

'I wonder, if that rooms been there as long as the school has, could Tom Riddle have ever found it? The man had a talent for locating lost sections of the school and turning up items believed a myth,' Remus kept thinking aloud.

'Could you ask Professor Dumbledore? I did see a storeroom in my dream, maybe you could ask the room for a place to hide something, that might get it open' suggested Harry

'It has to be worth a look, we've already ruled out the Chamber of Secrets when Albus forced it open and had it searched. Though at least it meant that basilisk could be harvested, you're going to be a rich man indeed once all the parts are sold.'

'I still made sure some of the proceeds got divided up amongst the victims, though Fleur and Hermione convinced me not to give it all away.'

Harry bade Remus goodbye and walked off towards the common room to get cleaned up after his exertions.

The next day after a satisfying breakfast where Harry read the latest issue of the Daily Prophet which had several good articles critical of Cornelius Fudge and the present ministry, As Harry had thought Dobby had been a gold mine of information and Harry had been slowly feeding Rita a steady diet of information about Lucius Malfoy's dirty dealings with Cornelius Fudge and other officials that were equally corrupt. No official inquiry had been called yet but the voices calling for one were growing louder. Harry bade Fleur goodbye and walked up the grand staircase to Transfiguration feeling in a good mood. The lesson itself wasn't too hard though when it was over, Professor McGonagall held him back and Harry felt resignation as he had a fair idea what he was about to be told and sure enough.

'Potter, you are to go down to the Quidditch pitch at nine o clock, Minister Fudge will be there to tell the champions about the third task.'

Harry grimaced at the thought of the third task, but before he could leave the classroom, Professor McGonagall added, 'you've improved a great deal lately, both academically and emotionally and I don't want to see you getting hurt. So please for the love of Merlin don't do anything foolish. After all, it isn't just about you anymore is it? Stay safe and keep Mademoiselle Delacour safe and we'll say no more about this mess once it's all over.'

'I'll try Professor, but you know my luck when it comes to trouble.'

'All too well Harry,' she sighed.

At half past eight that night Harry Gryffindor tower and met up with Fleur who greeted him affectionately as he left the entrance hall, and he felt her slip her hand into his as she fell into step besides him as they headed down towards the pitch.

'What will it be Mon chevalier? We 'ave 'ad magical creatures and 'ostage rescue, so what do you think zis one will be? A treasure 'unt perhaps?'

Harry thought for a moment and answered, 'that would be kind of interesting and fun, plus I could just nick one of Hagrid's nifflers to do it for me. But I read that the final task is traditionally an obstacle course of some kind and you have to go and get the cup itself.'

'Zat makes sense, but 'ow will zey guard it? What sort of obstacles?'

They walked through the evening and crossed the lawns together to the stadium but when they got there, Harry stopped suddenly and exclaimed indignantly.

'My beautiful quidditch pitch, what have they done to it? Ministry vandals!'

Fleur smiled, amused at the horrified look on his face and squeezed his hand, 'zey weel fix it when zis is over Mon chevalier, I 'ave not seen you play yet but there is time for zat later, do not worry yourself.'

Harry and Fleur examined the pitch closely and saw that it was no longer smooth and now it looked like low walls were criss-crossing it as far as they could see. Harry and Fleur both soon figured out what the third task was going to be.

'A maze? Zat is ze last task? Zat is all we weel 'ave to bypass?' Fleur scoffed with a tone of haughtiness.

Harry didn't think it would be that easy and said, 'I don't think it's going to be that easy Cherie, I can think of a few ways a maze could be a deadly trap. If Hagrid adds anything to that maze we're all in trouble. I can think of several of his more memorable pets that might end up in there,' Harry warned.

Cornelius Fudge was waiting along with Krum and Cedric and he greeted them both cheerfully, though Harry noticed with a look of satisfaction that the minister appeared to be feeling the strain of the media and societies recent scrutiny as his trademark jovial smile didn't seem to reach his eyes as much as it had in their previous meetings.

'Hello there! Mr Potter, Mademoiselle Delacour, now we're all here we can begin the briefing.'

Harry and Fleur walked over towards the middle of the pitch where he was standing with Viktor and Cedric who were both smiling at their approach.

'Well, what do you think?' said Fudge gesturing to the hedges as Harry and Fleur came closer to the assembled group.

'Growing nicely aren't they? Give it a month and Hagrid will have them twenty feet tall. Don't worry,' he added as he noticed the look on Harry and Cedric's faces, Cedric obviously hating the idea of the pitch being defaced as Harry did judging by his expression. 'You'll both have your Quidditch pitch back to normal once the task is over! I imagine you can all tell what we're making here?'

Krum grunted, 'maze?'

Fudge smiled, 'that's right, a maze. The third task is fairly straightforward in principle, the Triwizard cup will be placed in the centre of the maze and the first one of you to touch it will receive full marks.'

'We just have to get through the maze? Bit easy isn't it?' asked Cedric

'Not that easy Mr Diggory, there will be obstacles for you to overcome, a number of spells that will have to be broken and Hagrid is going to be providing a number of creatures which will be inside and there will be a few other surprises that I won't spoil. Our leader, Mr Potter will be the first to enter followed by Mademoiselle Delacour, Mr Diggory and finally Mr Krum. But all of you will be in with an even chance based on how well you get past the obstacles and navigate the maze itself, Should be a good final challenge for you all yes?

Harry who knew the kinds of creatures Hagrid would most likely pick to put in the maze had a different thought, ' _Fun, if you can call possibly being eaten by one of Hagrid's "interesting creatures" fun. Bad enough for me by myself, but Fleur's going in too and I'm supposed to be her protector. Plus Cedric and Krum, I don't want either them getting on Fluffy or Aragog's bad side even if they both signed up for this.'_

Harry nodded grimly as Fudge finished up and said, 'very well, if there are no more questions we'll go back to the castle Mr Potter? Mr Diggory? It is somewhat chilly and getting late.'

'I'll just walk Fleur back to the carriage minister.'

He waved them off and Harry began to lead Fleur back towards the Beauxbatons carriage, but as they came close to it, Harry saw a burst of luminescent green light in the distance past the tree line, an unmistakable burst of green light that had been the cause of several nightmares. Harry swore loudly and looked carefully towards the direction he thought he saw the light as Fleur exclaimed,

'Arry, mon Chevalier is something wrong?'

'Fleur, I swear I just saw a killing curse! Over there somewhere.' Harry exclaimed gesturing towards where he thought he saw it.

Harry thought he could hear footsteps coming towards them, but before he could do anything else he was caught completely off guard as Fleur impulsively threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into the most passionate kiss the pair had shared to date. All thoughts and emotions beyond the beautiful veela in his arms fled his mind as he wrapped his arms around her, one hand at her back and one in her long platinum tresses and deepened the kiss instinctively. How long the pair stood there in their romantic embrace lost to the world beyond each other Harry never knew. But they were soon pulled out of their passionate oblivion when the impostor Moody barked out to them from only a few paces away.

'That's enough now lovebirds or do I need to pour a bucket of cold water on your heads? Potter, back to the Gryffindor common room with you, curfews in half an hour. Delacour, get back to your carriage now, it's almost curfew for you too I believe.'

Harry did his best to act embarrassed at being caught snogging which wasn't difficult, 'sorry sir, we lost track of time.'

Fleur played along, 'my apologies professor, I didn't notice how late it was.'

He waved them off with disinterest 'it's alright you two never mind that, I've seen it all before and more. I went to Hogwarts back in the day too you know and you're not the first couple I've caught this year by any means. But it's getting dark out so get back inside before curfew or I'll have to put you both in detention.'

Fleur went inside the carriage after frantically whispering in Harry's ear to be careful, and Harry hurried back towards the castle not eager to stay anywhere alone with a known death eater assassin. Harry went upstairs, quickly putting distance between himself and Crouch and as quickly as he could he made his way towards Dumbledore's office. Reasoning that it the circumstances it was probably the best option he had to inform others of what he saw. After trying a few different sweets to guess the password, eventually he gained admittance as the gargoyle moved aside and he soon found the old man sitting at his desk with a rather grim look on his ancient face that made Harry suspicious that he already knew what had happened.

'Ahh, Harry this is an unexpected surprise, what can I do to help you this evening?'

Quickly explaining what he saw after the briefing, and what had happened he listened to Dumbledore's reply.

'You did the right thing in bringing this matter to my attention Harry, however this news was not unexpected, grim though it may be. For with Professor Snape's help we have broken Voldemort's written cyphers that he is presently using to communicate with Barty Crouch junior here at Hogwarts and have been able to read Crouches orders and dispatch false responses. From the last message intercepted we gained the intelligence that Crouch senior was being held captive in his own home by Tom and Peter Pettigrew under the imperious curse and was being forced to send in instructions to the ministry by owl to maintain a facade of being ill. However he had clearly began to fight the curse and subsequently managed to escape and made his way here, possibly to report to me. Tom subsequently ordered Crouch junior to silence him which he obviously just did in order to stop him being found and revealing whatever he knew.'

'If you're able to break their codes why couldn't you stop Crouch killing him?' Harry asked.

'Tom uses some very arcane spellwork on his dispatches, that is all but impossible to falsify but immediately recognisable to a death eater. While we can break the codes and read the messages, we cannot falsify new orders and Crouch would undoubtedly grow suspicious if he does not gain new dispatches as Tom has been corresponding with him fortnightly. The last message only reached Hogwarts yesterday giving almost no time to plan any rescue mission as we had no idea of where Crouch senior was though it was likely that either Tom or Peter Pettigrew placed a tracking charm on him.'

Harry felt resigned but accepted that it did make sense, but was confused, 'why didn't Crouch junior try and kill Fleur and me? He had a clean shot at the both of us while Fleur and I were distracted.'

Professor Dumbledore smiled, 'I believe we have managed to discover how Tom intends to return to a corporeal body. The Black book collection is among England's most noted for its knowledge of secrets of the dark arts. One of the tomes from the house detailed a dark ritual we believe Tom intends to use which we have also cross referenced to a few books in my personal collection. The ritual requires three elements, the flesh of a servant, and the bone of a close relative and the blood of an enemy. Knowing Tom as I do he will not just use anybody for this and would seek your blood. For this reason Tom would require you alive and as such his servant must keep his cover intact and act according to the agreed plan. So Fleur's actions were actually quite clever as it fooled Crouch junior into believing you both merely sought a romantic interlude in relative privacy and were oblivious to his actions. But I digress, for you see the ritual can only be performed on a certain number of magically significant days a year in order to maximise its power and thus increase the magical core of the new body. If I know Tom he probably intends to kill you after you are forced to watch his rebirth and then put your body in a place to instil maximum fear.'

Harry thought for a moment and then said, 'what about the bones, can we steal them? Or replace them with other bones now to sabotage the ritual?'

Dumbledore shook his head, 'if we act now, we will lose our control of the situation. Tom is not stupid and undoubtedly has placed wards around the graves to warn him if they are interfered with and if they are disturbed he will know we are onto him and we will lose our chance to strike. If we wait until he performs the ritual, all of his remaining death eaters will be in the one place at one time and we will potentially be able to apprehend or kill them all at once if we have enough back up in place. Hopefully the veela elders plan to neutralize the horcruxes should be ready by then.'

Harry still had one question, 'but what about Mr Crouch?'

Dumbledore looked sad, 'after this much time as Tom's prisoner, Crouch senior would have been as good as dead already. It is regrettable, no one deserves a fate like the one that has befallen him even a man who was as ruthless as he was in life. But this is war Harry and you must understand that there will always be casualties.'

Harry nodded grimly but before Dumbledore dismissed him like he expected he spoke with a clear tone of sorrow.

'While I don't doubt you will never truly forgive me for my actions Harry, and indeed I would expect no less of you and your new family. Indeed I quite admired Monsieur and Madam Delacours fearsome loyalty to you, I merely acted to make the best of an impossible situation with all the information I had available to me at the time. Though my actions were callous and damning for myself, I merely wanted what was best for the world at large which is the defeat of Tom Riddle and a new age of enlightened peace. Had I known of any alternative that would have spared you the suffering you have endured I would have carried it out in an instant. They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and I do not doubt my eventual destination. But before I do move on to my next adventure, it is my greatest wish that I can at least do my utmost to atone for some of the wrongs I have committed, both to you, the school and the world at large, all too often in war the young perish while the old linger but I shall do my utmost to make sure that does not happen this time as you and young Fleur both deserve your happiness.'

'For what it's worth, thank you sir. While I doubt I'll ever fully trust you as much as I used to I can at least accept your apology in the context.'

Harry bade the old man good night and turned to leave and Dumbledore gave his parting encouragement.

'Good luck in the last task.'


	10. Chapter 9

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note: I think I've dealt with my troll problem at least for the time being and with no goats available to boot, though take care as I think he's at it again under the name "Tomcruisefan" or else there's more than one of them. As always thank you for the reviews especially those of you who take the time to leave a comment every time I release a new chapter, that sort of support is what we all live for here. Now at last I begin to wind down towards the end of the Triwizard tournament and the confrontation with Voldemort. I can only hope you all like the next twists I intend to add to the canon scenario as much as my previous ones. Still, on with the show._

Chapter 9: The Third Task Begins

The day of the third task finally dawned on June the twenty fourth, Harry feeling a bit less nervous than he was before either of the other tasks as he got up and got ready for the day, as he believed he had done everything he could to prepare, though his concern for Fleur was as heightened as ever. However he did feel a grim sense as though a storm was approaching as he knew that tonight he was more than likely going to face Voldemort. As Harry made his way downstairs to breakfast with Ron, Neville and Hermione he reflected on all that had occurred that year and couldn't help but marvel as to how much he'd changed.

' _If someone had told me at the start of the year that all this would happen, I would have said they'd been sniffing potion fumes or drinking too much.'_

'Are you alright Harry? Are you scared?' asked Hermione, the concern evident on her face, snapping his attention to the present.

Harry thought for a long moment before finally replying, 'Yes I am, and not just for me, there's going to be far worse things tonight in that maze than Hagrid's pets and a few spells. I've got a bad feeling about this, my luck is always the worst at the end of the year and a competition like this. I'm worried Viktor or Cedric might try and attack myself or Fleur in order to win.'

Hermione was silent for a moment before she asked, 'you really think Krum might start attacking the others in order to win? Surely not, he's so nice to people normally.'

Ron looked a bit suspicious, 'yeah, but this is different Mione, it's the last task and that bloody headmaster might have pressured him to win at all costs and they do teach the dark arts over there.'

'Good point Ron, but there's rules and judges to stop that right,' said Neville

Fleur was quick to reassure them all, 'zat is possible Ronald, but I do not theenk he or Cedric will go zat far. 'They would know ze consequences for 'exing 'ze competition.'

Harry put an arm around Fleur who looked as scared as he felt as Ron asked Harry,

'Harry, what will you do during the exam? Read again?'

As he had been exempt from the exams, Harry had spent the time either researching or practising spells to prepare for the task, but before he could answer him, Professor McGonagall came over and said.

'Potter, Delacour the champions are congregating in the chamber off the hall after breakfast,' she said.

'Why?' asked Harry, 'the task isn't until this evening.'

'I'm aware of that Potter, the champions families are invited to watch the task, this is your chance to greet them.'

'Harry, we'd best be off, we don't want to be late for Binns,' Said Neville.

As they left, Harry and Fleur finished their breakfast before making their way to the chamber where Harry got a bit of a shock as instead of just seeing the Delacours, who greeted him with their usual loving warmth, he also found Mrs Weasley and Bill waiting for him. All of his supporters were smiling brightly at him and Mrs Weasley said.

'Surprise! Thought we'd come and watch you tonight.'

Bill grinned as he began, 'Charlie couldn't get here, couldn't get time off as he's rather busy these days but he said you were incredible in the first task.'

'Zat 'e was, if Karkaroff had scored fairly 'Arry should 'ave ad a perfect score,' praised Fleur.

'I didn't care to be honest, I'm just glad I got out without getting burnt to a crisp and everyone else did too,'

Harry noticed Bill paid a lot of attention to Fleur not that Harry minded much as at least he wasn't being obnoxious about it and Harry knew that most men would find her beautiful, which she was Harry admitted to himself proudly. But he turned to greet Alphonse and Apolline both of whom had a grim look in their eyes despite the smiles on their faces and Apolline began,

'Arry, 'Are you alright? I know zis isn't going to be pleasant.'

Harry nodded determinedly and said, 'I'm alright, I think, I'm more worried about what might happen to the others to be perfectly honest.'

Fleur squeezed him tightly, 'you wouldn't be you if you did not care for ze others more zan yourself Mon chevalier.'

Alphonse tried to be his usual self, 'just be careful Mon garcon, we've brought along a few things for you both that you should find useful.'

'That can wait though surely,' said Mrs Weasley, eyeing Fleur with a mild look of distaste on her face which Harry found odd, 'how about you both show us around and tell us what's been happening lately.'

Harry led the way out and spent the morning in the grounds showing off the Durmstrang ship and the Beauxbatons carriage, explaining what had been happening and listening to Bill and Mrs Weasley telling anecdotes of their times at Hogwarts. Eventually they headed back inside for lunch and joined the Gryffindor table, before Ron said.

'Mum, Bill, Gabrielle, err? Not sure who you two are, no offence, what are you all doing here?'

'None taken, I am Alphonse and zis is my wife Apolline, Fleur and Gabrielle's parents and foster family of your friend 'Arry.'

Mrs Weasley grimaced mildly at his words but answered her son's question, 'we're all here to watch the last task, how was the exam?'

Ron actually smiled, much to Harry's surprise and said, 'no problem, Luna was a big help while I was revising for the exams, never knew just how smart she actually is until I got talking to her.'

Mrs Weasley seemed surprised, but smiled, 'Xenophillus's daughter's been helping you study Ron? That's wonderful dear,' as she proudly hugged her youngest son.

Fred, George, Neville and Ginny all joined them and Harry soon forgot about the task to come as he spent most of the time relaxing with family and friends but before long Alphonse whispered in his ear.

'Arry, bring Fleur and come with us, we must discuss our final preparations, oh and I'll just collect young William.'

Alphonse and Apolline led Fleur and him upstairs to the headmaster's office where he was waiting with Amelia Bones. Several odd shaped packages lay on Professor Dumbledore's desk and when the door had shut behind Bill, Amelia began to speak.

'It is going to happen at last, what those of us who aren't as ignorant as our illustrious minister would prefer to be, however unlike last time we will not be caught unaware. Our enemy is cunning, ruthless and prepared to use any means to achieve his goal and so he will fight savagely, so Harry for merlins sake be careful and yet yourself out as quickly as possible. My team will deal with any of the death eaters who show up and provide fire support for you.'

Fleur was curious and a bit wary as she asked, 'Why does 'Arry even have to go near 'im?'

Amelia sighed as she faced her and said, 'Fleur, I'm afraid that as you know, the plot to resurrect he who must not be named will proceed tonight, and we will execute our plan to stop it, but for that we will need Harry's cooperation. Voldemort expects Harry to show up and to spring the trap we've set, he must be there.'

Fleur looked scared but nodded and said, 'promise me zis is ze last time you will purposely do zis?'

Amelia smiled, 'I promise, don't worry Fleur, you'll have him all to yourself when this is all over and hopefully then the only danger he'll face in your hands will be sunburn on some French beach.'

Harry grinned at the mental image before Amelia then opened the first package and he was surprised when the light in the room reflected off metal and green snakeskin.

Amelia began, 'we've been working on this since the expedition to search the chamber of secrets and Harry, I'm sure you're aware of muggle flak jackets which are designed to stop bullets and partially absorb explosive energy. These suits of armour are designed along similar lines and for a similar purpose, the outer layer is basilisk skin with magically lightened goblin steel reinforcement. Under the skin is an interweaved lining made from Acromantula silk and fine chain mail.'

Harry was amazed, 'wow, that's amazing but won't the suits be really heavy?'

Alphonse grinned, 'no, ze suits may weight a bit when you pick zem up, but ze weight is distributed evenly across your bodies and makes them quite light and easy to move in.'

Fleur was impressed, 'zat is very useful, but where did you get zem?'

Apolline answered, 'we sold ze bulk of ze basilisk to ze DMLE who decided to build ze suits from zem. Zeese are ze prototype models and will go into production based on your experiences.'

Harry was impressed, _'Sounds good, won't make us invincible but if it keeps Fleur safe then it's great.'_

Harry had more questions, 'when I get ambushed, what happens?'

Dumbledore answered, 'we have set up a strike team at the cemetery that will be used and they will be ready to move in when they notice your arrival. I will give you a charmed lapel pin that will give a signal to the team when you arrive. When the attack commences, go for cover but do not hesitate to fire at any death eater in your path or attack the snake if you get close enough.'

Apolline passed over a black crystal, about the same size as the philosopher's stone which had etched runes glowing a sickly green and a one handed hammer which reminded Harry of the old Viking legends.

'Arry, zis stone has been created to 'old ze fragments of ze dark lords soul and because zere is more of it in ze stone zan 'is body at ze moment, if he is struck down what's left of 'im will become trapped within ze crystal. When that happens, you take ze 'ammer and shatter ze crystal which will banish 'is soul beyond all 'ope of resurrection.'

Professor Dumbledore checked his watch, 'Harry, Fleur I suggest you should change into your amour and make your way downstairs. There is an anteroom off the main office space that you can use, Madam Delacour if you could assist them.'

Harry and Fleur nodded and Harry picked up the armour pile that was tailored to fit him and went into a small dining room that Dumbledore obviously used for private meals where he and Fleur helped each other buckle on the armour. The leggings, boots, breastplate and gloves each going on in turn while Apolline checked the fastenings and adjusted the fit of the armour.

Stepping back into the main office, Alphonse came up to them and smiled.

'You both look dangerous, but these will give you just a bit more of an edge.'

He reached into a bag he was carrying and pulled out a two long, slim bladed stiletto daggers which were encased in a leather sheaths and passed them over.'

'Strap zem to your belts, but be careful what you use zem on as they are coated in basilisk venom, a single scratch would kill a man in less zan a minute unless you give zem ze proper antidote and zat is very rare.'

He then pulled out a long sword which he passed over to Harry, 'Arry zis blade is an 'eirloom of my family, I'd like you to 'ave it as Remus told me you 'ave a talent for ze sword. I don't know if you will be able to use it against ze death eaters but I 'ope it 'elps.'

'Thank you, I'll do my best to look after it.'

Harry strapped the sword, the hammer and the dagger to his belt and put the stone in his pocket before he said.

'Well, I guess I'm ready now I suppose we'd better get down there.'

As they left the room, Harry felt an odd passage of air over his head, ruffling his hair and shrugged, putting it down to a draft coming in the open window.

When Harry and Fleur made their way to the great hall where he met up with the other champions and sat with them for a few minutes, Viktor and Cedric were both looking at them in awe and Cedric spoke.

'Holy merlin, where'd you both get that armour and those weapons? And why do you need them? Are you going off to war?'

Harry sighed, 'special gift from my new family, can't blame them considering what Hagrid's probably put in that maze. But they were going to load me for Nundu at least Fleur gets the same protection.'

Fleur grinned and leaned over to kiss his cheek, 'always mon gallant 'ero.'

Cedric smiled, 'you both look, fit for battle.'

Krum spoke up next, 'you both look dangerous.'

Harry grimaced and said, 'I hope so,' but then paid attention as Dumbledore began speaking.

'Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes time, I will be asking you to make your way down to the Quidditch pitch for the third and last task of the Triwizard tournament. Will the champions please follow Minister Fudge down to the stadium.'

Harry got up, waved over towards Hermione and the others and led Fleur out of the great hall and into the grounds, the Gryffindors and most of the other students all cheering him as he left.

'Feeling all right Harry? Confident? You definitely look the part I must say that's some rather impressive gear, Dragon hide?' asked Fudge with open admiration.

'Basilisk skin actually and I'm fine really minister, I've been trained by professionals.'

When they reached the Quidditch pitch, Harry could barely recognize it because of the massive twenty foot tall hedge running around it, a gap nearby showed a dark and forbidding looking section of maze beyond. The stands began to fill with spectators and the air was full of exited conversation, Hagrid, Barty Crouch junior, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick all appeared and approached the minister and the champions before Professor McGonagall explained about how to get out of the maze if they got into difficulty.

Fudge magically amplified his voice before he began addressing the crowd.

'Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you of how the tables stand! In first place, representing Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is our very own boy who lived, Mr Harry Potter.'

There was a loud roar of applause, 'in second place from Beauxbatons academy of magic is Mademoiselle Fleur Delacour,' more applause rang out.

'In third place, also representing Hogwarts School is Mr Cedric Diggory.'

'Finally, last but certainly not least we have Mr Viktor Krum representing Durmstrang Institute.'

Harry turned to Fleur and whispered, 'whatever happens in there, just be safe and come back to me afterwards.'

Fleur pulled him close and kissed him, 'you too Mon chevalier, I love you 'Arry, please, for me do not do anything foolish.'

'I love you too Fleur.'

Fudge turned towards Harry, 'on my whistle my lad, three, two, one.'

Harry walked into the maze as he heard the shrill tone of the whistle, determined to get to the cup before any accidents happened. He felt grateful of a good light spell as the inside of the maze was incredibly dark and quiet with no noise coming in from the outside. Moving forward slowly, eyes scanning the maze for any sign of obstacles, Harry advanced until he reached the first fork and then drew his wand and muttered.

' _Point me.'_

His wand spun in his hand and pointed to the right, and Harry knew that he needed to go northwest in order to reach the centre of the maze and so took the right turn and began to move along it. As he advanced he felt curious as to why he hadn't seen any obstacles yet, as he'd heard the whistle announcing the entrance of the other champions and could have sworn he'd heard spellfire a few times but he had yet to see anything. Finally after advancing a ways further, Harry came to a path which was shrouded with fog, and out of the fog came what looked to be a dementor.

Harry reacted on instinct and quickly fired a patronus charm, remembering Fleur's declaration of love, and watched rather shocked as instead of the familiar stag, a large spectral eagle with a cruel looking curved beak and sharp talons swept towards the figure which stumbled.

'You're no dementor, you're a boggart! _Riddikulus!_ '

Harry had wanted to try an image he'd had in his mind since he'd been forced to watch a few of Dudleys video nasties the previous summer and had found his magazine stash. He knew it worked when he saw the figure reach into a robe and draw out a cigarette and an adult magazine, before he made it explode with a single loud 'ha'.

However before he could advance further he heard running footsteps coming from behind and trained his wand, ready to repel an attack only to find see Cedric, out of breath, his robes smoking slightly.

He stopped and gasped, 'Hagrid's blast ended Skrewts and they're enormous, I only just got out of there.'

Harry sighed and after thinking for a moment, spotted a few rocks on the ground and transfigured a loose barricade, blocking the path and saying.

'That ought to hold them, for a little while anyway, now come on.'

Cedric followed in his wake and then Harry heard a strange noise that reminded him of the whomping willow and then saw the hedges begin to close in on them before he yelled.

'Oh no, Run!'

Harry seized Cedric's arm and ran, not stopping to look back as he ran forwards as he felt roots try and trip him up, but he felt Cedric's arm slip from his grip and looked back to see his feet bound in creepers which were pulling him into the hedge.

Harry paused, ' _If I let them grab him, he'll probably be safe, but if I don't save him he'll be really mad and think I've let the competition get to me.'_

Making the decision, Harry ran back to him and drew his sword, quickly slicing through the thick creepers and pulling Cedric out before they ran to a fork where thankfully the hedges had not closed over. Both stopped, panting from the exertion before Harry sheathed his blade and Cedric said.

'For a moment there, I thought you weren't going to help.'

Harry looked back and said, 'me too, now we'd best move on before anything else shows up.'

Cedric nodded and took a left while Harry took the right, and was surprised to find a fire blocking the path soon afterwards, Harry paused for a moment thinking about what to do and then broke off a small stick from the closest hedge when he noticed that he felt no heat from the fire. Poking the stick into the fire, he felt suspicious when he saw that it didn't burn and then guessed.

' _It's a trick.'_

So Harry calmly moved forward and walked right through it and moved on, only to be scared a moment later when he heard a feminine scream from somewhere on the other side of the hedge to his left and saw no evidence of red sparks. Heart pounding Harry knew he had to save her and faced the hedge and cast one of the spells he had learned from the upper years spell books, ' _aufer herbas.'_

The defoliating charm cut a wide gap in the hedge, easily wide enough for him to walk through and he found Fleur backing away from an approaching acromantula.

' _Not if I can help it you don't!'_

He looked and then quickly tried to stun the approaching acromantula, not that the spell had any impact on the horse sized magical spider which began to scuttle towards him. Harry knew he'd need a more powerful spell and quickly aimed and fired a borderline dark spell he'd found in the restricted section which Remus had wrangled him access to.

' _Flammemum hasta!'_

A long burning spear shot forward and buried itself into the hide of the spider and it gave a screeching cry as the head buried itself into it and magical fire began burning its hide. Abandoning all thought of Fleur it advanced faster despite the severe wound it had suffered and Harry tried another tactic.

' _Excavo saxum,'_ he dug out a large rock from the ground before levitating it and then fired, ' _Waddiwassi'_ aiming the stonetowards the oncoming spider, the stone struck it in the head and knocked it down where it lay, obviously fatally wounded. Deciding to put it out of its misery, Harry drew his sword and thrust forward, the blade burying itself into the head which killed it instantly before he pulled it out and wiped the blood and innards off on the hide and sheathed the weapon.

'Fleur, are you alright?'

Fleur ran into his arms, close to tears and hugged him tightly, despite the armour between them.

'Merci 'mon chevalier, zat Acromantula came out of nowhere! Zey expect us to fight beasts zat dangerous?'

Harry sighed, 'I'm definitely having words with Hagrid later, now come on. Screw this bloody tournament, I think teaming up is the safest strategy for making it out, even if they disqualify us for it.'

Fleur agreed, 'Let's go 'Arry zere might be more of zem nearby.'

Harry moved back through the gap in the hedge and soon came across a very familiar looking beast.

' _Fluffy, if he's here I'm getting close.'_

Fleur smiled at the sight and Harry watched as she transfigured some nearby loose branches into a harp and charmed the instrument to play, soon watching as the big dog fall asleep and then quietly sneaking past it. Advancing further towards the centre, using the four point spell to navigate the maze Harry and Fleur heard Cedric's angry challenge from up ahead.

'What are you doing? What the hell do you think you're doing?'

Then he heard Viktor's voice, ' _Crucio.'_

'Merde!' Fleur swore loudly, 'ze torture curse? Is 'e out of 'is mind? What is zat fool thinking?'

They rounded a corner and found Viktor standing over Cedric's twitching form, spotting them he turned around and began to fire curses at Fleur, strangely not paying any attention to Harry. Though Harry noticed the blank eyed look in his face and guessed instantly what was going on.

'Stupefy!'

Fleur's stunner caught the Bulgarian in the chest and dropped him like a puppet with no strings before Harry ran over to Cedric as he sat up with a groan.

'Are you alright?' Harry asked as he helped Cedric to his feet.

'I think so,' he muttered, 'I knew he would have been wanting the win, but I didn't think he was capable of this.'

Harry looked down at the fallen Durmstrang champion and said, 'I don't think he is normally, I reckon he was under the Imperius curse, but we should probably send up a flare, otherwise fluffy or a skrewt might find and eat him.'

Cedric muttered that he'd deserve it, but still fired a red rocket into the sky which burst far overhead in a shower of red sparks marking where Krum had fallen before reaching into Krum's robe and taking his wand.

'Are you two working together? Isn't that against the rules?' Cedric asked

Harry answered, 'fuck the rules, Fleur almost got eaten by a bloody acromantula and you got tortured by Krum even if he was under the Imperius curse. Sooner we all get out of this damn maze the better, let the judges sort it out, I really don't care right now.'

Cedric grinned, 'damn, you've definitely changed Harry, I like it. Need another wand?'

'Zat would be welcome, I don't want to see anyone else get 'exed,' said Fleur.

'You're better off with us than by yourself Cedric, so by all means, the more the merrier.'

So all three of them moved together through the maze and after hitting a few more dead ends and casting the four point spell several times, Harry and the others came upon an extraordinary creature he had only ever read about in the _Monster Book of Monsters_ , half woman, half lioness, a sphinx.

'You are very near your goal, the quickest way is past me, answer my riddle and you may pass, remain silent and you may retreat, get it wrong and I attack. One riddle per champion and you were first young one so we will start with you.'

'Can I hear the riddle please?' asked Harry.

The sphinx smiled,

' _I can come to you and depart without warning,'_

 _I can both lift you to the heavens and sink you to the pits of despair,_

 _Men and women search the world for me though not all will find me_

 _I have many faces and from night to day, from day to night ever my presence remains even when those who have found me are apart._

 _What am I?'_

Harry looked towards Fleur and then back at the sphinx.

'Love,' he answered

The sphinx smiled and moved aside for him to pass, and he moved forwards and checked the direction again and soon took a right turn. Harry saw the cup ahead and moved straight for it and stretched forth his hand to pick it up.

' _Right, bring it on Tom.'_

But before he could touch it, Harry felt his body seize up and fall backwards and strangely looked up into his own face, identical down to the faded white scar above his eyes.

'The dark lord dies tonight Harry Potter, but my oath shall be fulfilled.'

Harry watched as his doppelganger wrapped him up in an unmistakable silvery bundle before he placed one hand on his arm and with the other touched the cup and Harry felt himself being pulled forward in a familiar flash of blue light.


	11. Chapter 10

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note: Thanks to all my recent reviewers, some of you were quick to spot my little cliffhanger with Snape and polyjuice potion as the culprit. I was originally going for Dumbledore but this just sort of wrote itself. We're starting to get towards the end of this fic now which has about 2-3 chapters left to go which is a bit of a shame really as it's been amazing with the level of support I've been getting for it. I have got more ideas for new fics but I've only got so much free time to spare, so stay tuned in the near future. But for now sit back and enjoy the next chapter of my work._

Chapter 10: Wand Fight at the Little Hangleton Cemetery

The world came back into focus a moment later as Harry felt his body hit grass before his captor pulled him upright and propped him up against a nearby tree, facing him towards a seemingly deserted graveyard before putting a single finger to his lips and walking away up the hill towards the headstones. As Harry's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he noticed a church was off to the right and a hill rose to the left with the outline of a large house visible on it. Harry watched as the figure moved along looking for any sign of movement and before long Harry noticed a figure coming towards the doppelganger, whoever it was wore a hooded cloak though they looked to be quite short. It looked to be carrying a wrapped bundle and Harry was curious about what it was, but before long he heard a voice, a hauntingly familiar voice come from the bundle which said.

'Seize him!'

The doppelganger put up a fight but Harry had a suspicion that they lost on purpose as after a short duel they were overcome, Peter Pettigrew's unmistakable face looming into view as he tied the unknown captor to a headstone.

Harry found he still couldn't move but could hear noises and watched as an enormous snake began to circle the gravestone his captor was tied to and watched as Pettigrew came into view dragging an enormous stone cauldron, far larger than any he had ever used in potions class. Harry could just make out the strange bundle that Pettigrew had been carrying and noticed that it looked to be moving. Wormtail busied himself with the cauldron and lit a fire underneath it, the liquid within seeming to heat very fast as it was soon giving off clouds of steam and again Harry heard the voice coming from the bundle.

'Hurry!'

The liquid in the cauldron was giving off sparks now, looking as though it was burning and Pettigrew spoke.

'It is ready master.'

'Now,' said the voice.

Pettigrew undid the bundle though from the distance Harry couldn't see what was in it as Pettigrew carried the weak, and feeble looking thing to the cauldron and put it into the potion.

' _What the hell is going on here?'_

Pettigrew raised his wand into the air and began to chant an incantation.

' _Bone of the father unknowingly given, you will renew your son!'_

The grave below the doppelgangers feet cracked open and a fine trickle of dust flew into the cauldron, the liquid within turning a poisonous looking blue with a hiss.

Pettigrew whimpered as he drew a silvery dagger from his robe and held his hand over the cauldron.

' _Flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed, you will revive your master.'\_

Harry shut his eyes but that didn't block out the scream and the splash as something went into the potion, the red light of which blazed through his closed eyelids. When he opened his eyes, he saw Pettigrew moaning and holding the stump of his right hand and then watched with a sinking feeling as he moved towards his captor and stabbed whoever it was in the arm before collecting some of the blood that dripped from the wound.

'B- _blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe!'_

Harry again shut his eyes and opened them just in time to see a hiss of white steam and a pale skeletal figure emerge from the cauldron and command.

'Robe me.'

Wormtail stagged to his feet and quickly did as instructed and Harry watched, horrified as the figure that had been a source of nightmares for years stepped out of the cauldron and into clear view, Lord Voldemort had returned.

He paid little attention to his captive, nor Peter Pettigrew who lay on the ground his robes stained with his own blood as Voldemort examined his new body, the pale spidery hands were caressing his body and his blood red eyes were gleaming with excitement as he drew his wand and caressed it lovingly. He cast a spell and Pettigrew was thrust up against the same gravestone his captive was tied to and then finally looked at him and laughed before Wormtail pleaded.

'My Lord, my lord you promised, you did promise.'

'Hold out your arm,' Voldemort commanded lazily before he added, 'the other arm Wormtail,' as Pettigrew held out his bleeding stump.

He roughly rolled up Pettigrew's left sleeve and Harry saw a vivid red tattoo, the same as the mark which had appeared in the skies during the aftermath of the world cup, the dark mark.

'It is back,' he began, 'all will have noticed it and now we shall see. Now we shall know…'

Harry watched as Voldemort touched the brand on Pettigrew's arm and saw it change to jet black with an accompanying howl from Pettigrew. Voldemort stood up, a look of satisfaction on his face as he gazed around the graveyard.

'How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it, and how many will be foolish enough to stay away?'

He turned his attention back towards his captive who looked to be wincing in pain,

'You stand Harry Potter upon the remains of my late father,' he hissed. 'A muggle and a fool, much like your dear mother. But both had their uses did they not? Your mother died to save you as a child and I killed my father and see how useful he has proven to me in death.'

Harry rolled his eyes and wished he could block his ears as Voldemort continued in the tradition of many a villain and continued the tragic tale of his birth and upbringing before the air was filled with the noise of wizard's apparating. All of them were hooded and masked and all of them fell to their knees and kissed Voldemort's robes like slaves one by one before he continued on his monologue berating his death eaters for not coming to look for him sooner.

One by one he spoke to all the assembled death eaters, some he merely spoke to, others were tortured for some perceived treachery before he finally got to Pettigrew and after much pleading, Harry watched Voldemort create a new silver hand which fitted to Pettigrew's wrist.

Finally after a time Voldemort finally spoke of how Harry had been brought to where he thought he was.

'Yes, Harry Potter has kindly joined us for my rebirthing party, one could call her my guest of honour.'

A death eater finally asked how Voldemort had been resurrected and he obliged them with another monologue which told of how he had overlooked his mother's sacrifice, fled to a distant forest and eventually found Professor Quirrel before failing to steal the Philosophers stone and being forced back to the forest before Pettigrew finally found him and led him back to England after kidnapping Bertha Jorkins. He described how Pettigrew managed to return Voldemort to a weak body of his own and also reunited him with other servants, Barty Crouch junior who had rigged the Triwizard tournament so that Harry could win.

Voldemort laughed finally and then faced Harry, '….And here he is the boy you all thought was my downfall.'

' _Crucio!'_

It was agony to watch for Harry and even worse to listen to the screams, finally after what seemed like an eternity, it was over and the death eaters were laughing.

'You see, how foolish it was to suppose that this boy could ever be stronger than me, but I want there to be no mistake in anybody's minds. Harry Potter escaped me by a lucky chance and I will prove it here and now by killing him in front of you all and then showing the world just how false their hope was. But he will be allowed to fight with no mother to die for him and no Dumbledore or veela whore to protect him and you will be in no doubt of who is the stronger.'

Pettigrew untied his captive and gave him back his wand and Harry watched as his doppelganger stood before his enemy as the snake like man said.

'You have been taught to duel, we bow to each other,' as he bent a little but kept his face on his opponent.

'Harry's doppelganger remained still as he said, 'come on Harry, the niceties must be observed, and Dumbledore would like to show manners I'm sure.'

'You know Tom, the deepest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers and I once pledged myself to your service and asked of you only one favour in exchange. A favour you promised me for my years of loyalty. For breaking your word, I shall destroy you even if it means my own death.'

Harry watched in shock as the figure reached into his robe and drew out something shiny, he didn't know what it was but Voldemort obviously did.

'What? What is this? You are not Potter! Severus? How could you? You would betray me now over a filthy mudblood? A women who scorned you in favour of your worst enemy?'

' _Snape! What the fuck is he doing here impersonating me? Where's that damned back up?'_

'That was my own doing what she finally chose Potter, I betrayed her, I betrayed myself and I betrayed my school. Though it means my death I go to my grave gladly if it means your end you monster. You are not the messiah we thought you were, you are a very naughty boy and I never was yours from the day you threatened her life. You are an abomination that will soon be wiped clean from the face of the earth.'

'Wrong, Avada Kedavra!'

The spell struck true and Harry watched horrified as Professor Snape fell to the ground dead, the red object in his hand falling to the ground and shattering on impact creating a vast explosion. The shockwave blowing Harry onto his back and in a daze he heard the sounds of apparition.

'What the fuck has happened here? Spread out and look for survivors.' Harry heard a voice order.

Harry heard footsteps approaching as he staggered to his feet and noticed the utter devastation around him. There was barely a single intact gravestone close to the blast point and instead was an impact crater that would fit a small bus inside, and Harry felt sickened as he noticed the corpses both whole and in bits barely supressing the urge to vomit from the smell of blood, spent explosive and death in the air. Before he forgot, Harry drew the stone from his pocket and set it on the ground figuring there was no way Voldemort could have survived the blast at point blank range.

As he set the stone down Harry saw the two wisps of black smoke flying into it and as Harry pulled out the hammer he saw the figure form above the stone. It was nothing like the snake like man he'd seen earlier but closer to the image of the young Tom Riddle but the ravages of dark magic were clear on his face.

'So, this is how it ends Potter, do you think you've won? Do you think you'll have your golden age for the muggleborn and muggle filth now I'm gone? They cannot be trusted with the secrets of magic, history has made that quite clear time and again.'

'Do you ever shut up? You killed my parents, why should I give a shit about what your're saying?' Harry asked as he raised the hammer ready to strike.

'Potter, listen to me. Sooner or later they will find us and destroy or enslave you all. Strike back before it is too late, avenge all those who died at their hands.'

'Go to hell already Tom, whether that's true or not isn't up to me but there's better ways to deal with it than just wiping them all out.'

The hammer fell and the stone shattered with a single fading scream as the figure of Tom Riddle vanished, this time for good.

'Hey we got a live one over here!'

The light from a wand was shone at him and Harry made out the features of a young woman with spiky violet hair.

'It's him! It's Harry Potter! I've found him!'

Running footsteps brought at least twelve men and women to where he was, taking positions standing around him. The young witch began to speak,

'Wotcher Harry my names Tonks, are you alright? What in the name of Merlins saggy underpants happened here?

'Snape, he disguised himself as me probably with Polyjuice potion, he petrified me in the maze, brought us both here with the portkey and stuck me under an invisibility cloak and then suicide bombed Voldemort. I saw the whole thing, it was bloody awful but why didn't you guys show up sooner?'

'He must have tamped with the lapel pin to delay us so that we wouldn't get caught in the blast, we only just got the signal to move in,' said Tonks.

A black wizard with a single gold hoop in his ear moved forward and barked orders,

'Alright you lot, start looking for any evidence we can bag. We haven't got long before the muggles start getting curious. I want us and any evidence out of here before the please men, MI5 or the army show up, hopefully they'll all buy the story that this was an old UXB. Tonks, get him out of here and back to Hogwarts by five minutes ago.'

Tonks picked up the invisibility cloak and grabbed his arm and began leading him back towards where the Triwizard cup was lying on the ground. Harry was feeling too tired and overwhelmed to protest or say anything against her and meekly followed trying to make sense of what had just happened.

Tonks had a look at him and then said, 'you'd better get to Hogwarts and get patched up, it looks like you banged your head a bit when the bomb went off.'

'Why'd he do it? I thought he hated me?'

'I think he hated you know who a lot more than he hated you which is something as he hated pretty much everyone he taught with the exception of a few Slytherins. With any luck he's left a note somewhere that'll tell us more. But you need to get back to your lady and your in laws, they must be worried sick. Let us professionals do our job Harry.'

Harry picked up the cup and with the familiar pulling sensation he soon found himself lying on his back in the grass outside the entrance to the maze. Harry heard and felt what seemed like a stampede all around him as the ground shook, voices of the crowd blurring all around him Suddenly Fleur and Amelia had hurried up to him and Fleur reached down and helped him gingerly to his feet and put her arms around him for support as Harry still felt shaky. The DMLE head all business as she began to question him.

'Harry are you alright?' What on earth happened in there? You look like you went through Hell itself'

Harry could only nod and say, ' you're not far off, I'll live, but Snape killed him and the snake, not sure what he used to do it but he disguised himself as me and then suicide bombed the reunion somehow. All the death eaters and Tom himself were killed in the blast. I smashed the stone so that should mean its over.'

Amelia and Fleur after an initial puzzled look suddenly gasped in surprise, their eyes widening in shock.

Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall were the next to arrive along with Alphonse, Apolline, Mr and Mrs Weasley and Hermione.

Professor McGonagall took one look at his form and instantly commanded, 'Right, hospital wing Potter, come along this minute, Mademoiselle Delacour if you could assist him.'

Dumbledore shook his head, 'no Minerva, Harry deserves to see this finished and he needs to understand, understanding is the first step to acceptance and only with acceptance can there be recovery.'

Dumbledore led the way upstairs to the impostor Moody's office where a resigned group of champions, friends, professors and parents assembled and Cedric asked as they all sat down in the chairs Dumbledore conjured.

'Harry, what's going on? Why are we all here?'

Harry sadly said, 'there's so much crazy stuff that's happened, I don't even know where to start.'

Professor Dumbledore dosed Harry with pepperup potion which did help bring the world back into sharper focus before he dosed the unconscious impostor with veritaserum and waking him up and beginning to question him. The story he told was very simple and yet fitted in perfectly to everything that had happened that year as he told of how his mother had got him out of prison, the world cup, Voldemort freeing him from his father's control, his time as an impostor and his efforts to rig the tournament. The audience was stunned by the magnitude of the revelations and said little. But when the interrogation had finished and Dumbledore had stunned Crouch again Cedric asked.

'But polyjuice potion is that pungent surely someone noticed what was going on? Unless….'

Harry sighed, he had been dreading this but knew that the time had come and said.

'I did know, Fleur, Hermione and I figured it out but we were persuaded to stay quiet for security.'

He told them all of finding out about the plot and about confronting Dumbledore and Snape leading to the now infamous crackdown on Slytherin.

Harry spoke to them all about learning new spells and his efforts in the maze and Professor Snape's intervention and ultimate sacrifice and finally, his voice beginning to get sore he told them about what happened in the graveyard. All the occupants in the room gasping in horror when Harry described what he had seen and shaking their heads sadly when Harry explained what he had done.

Harry finally fell silent, lost in thought about what had happened before the silence was broken by Mrs Weasley pulling him close.

'Oh Harry, you poor dear, you really shouldn't be doing this.'

She shot a black look towards Dumbledore over his shoulder, 'Albus, what were you thinking? Sending him in there and expecting him to fight him like that was outrageous and now look what's happened to Severus. While I never liked him and never believed he was innocent after the first war to see him die like this completely needlessly, it's outrageous. '

Amelia spoke up before Dumbledore did, 'Molly, if it helps, I didn't like it any more than you did when I first heard what was going to happen and I had no inkling Severus was planning to do what he did tonight and neither did Albus. But if we'd wasted the chance we were given to end this war before it could begin then Tom could have come back to power with no warning and he would be much stronger as a result. If what we've just heard is true then he is already dead and Harry need never go near another dark wizard again. I'll put in the paperwork to cite him for the order of Merlin myself and I never thought I'd say this but I'll do it for Severus too. A posthumous order would be the decent thing to do in the circumstances, who would have thought somebody like him would have it in him? To sacrifice his own life to protect the son of his worst enemy.'

Professor Dumbledore addressed the gathered group.

'Indeed Amelia, though Severus was despised by the school at large it does illustrate that even the most despicable among us are capable of redemption. I never ordered him to act the way he did and think him rather rash for doing so as it risked Crouch junior escaping though thankfully Severus subdued him before entering the maze. While I can never condone what he has done, I can only admire his display of courage to face his past and admit his past wrongs tonight and now that Tom has been defeated permanently, we can count the costs of victory at our leisure and ensure the mistakes of the past are never repeated.'

He spoke to Harry, 'now, Harry if you would allow me to take a copy of your memory for analysis? It would be of great use to us all in determining how best to proceed from here. Afterwards you had best get to Madam Pomfrey as you have suffered a most terrible ordeal and need your rest.'

'Mr Diggory, Mademoiselle Delacour, though I don't doubt you intend to accompany Mr Potter to the hospital wing I would suggest you both be treated as well, these events were undoubtedly a terrible ordeal for you both. Mr Krum has already been evacuated to St Mungoes hospital for observation so you need not worry for his safety as he is in the best of medical care.'

He came over to Harry and extracted a copy of the memory of the events of that night before he released the group at large and Harry found himself being steered by his adoptive parents towards the hospital wing where they were met by a harassed looking Madam Pomfrey who cried in dismay as she got a good look at the champions.

'Concussion? Cuts and bruises? Shock? Good grief, cruciatus exposure! What was Albus thinking when he agreed to host this blasted tournament? If I wasn't bound by the Hippocratic Oath I swear I'd…..' She left the rest of her threat silent as she turned her attention back to them.

'Potter, Diggory, must I lock you two in here for protection for the remainder of your time in this castle to keep you safe? Get in here this instant, all three of you and where is Mr Krum? If he's as bad off as you three I want him in my hospital now.'

She grabbed her wand and healing spells soon fixed the bumps and bruises Cedric, Harry and Fleur had all suffered during the events of that night before she examined Harry as if searching him for more injuries. She left his side and stalked towards the supply cabinet and threw him a pair of pyjamas as she hurried to Cedric's side. Neville led Harry behind a screen and helped him to remove the armour before Harry changed into the pyjamas and laid down on the bed and the others gathered around him. Madam Pomfrey soon came back to his side bearing a tray with a goblet of purple potion which she put onto the bedside table.

Apolline came to his side and pulled him into her arms, 'you 'ave destroyed your old foe and fulfilled your duty, never seek another Mon garcon. Zere is no glory in war, nor any reason to needlessly seek to be an 'ero. You 'ave ended ze war, now let ze adults build ze peace for all of us, you 'ave a future now, so make ze most of it.'

She let go of him and Fleur came close in her wake and whispered into his ear 'you've done your part mon chevalier, now go to sleep, we 'ave ze rest of eternity before us now.'

She leaned in and kissed him lovingly before passing him the goblet and Harry soon drank the contents and knew no more as he fell asleep.


	12. Chapter 11

Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

 _Authors note: Thanks to all my recent reviewers as ever, and once again I'm sorry about the delay in releasing this next chapter. But once again real life has a habit of getting in the way and my free time has now been severely curtailed, now we begin to explore my take of the aftermath of the death of the dark lord._

Chapter 11: A New Day Dawns

Harry awoke the next morning to the pleasurable sensation of a soft hand brushing gently through his hair and down his cheek as the clear golden rays of the sun shone through the open window close to his bed in the hospital wing. Overall Harry felt a lot better in himself, though he still felt somewhat overwhelmed by all that had happened as he thought of the events of the previous evening. As Harry looked up into a pair of unmistakable clear blue eyes he felt all the better as Fleur's lips descended on his, before she spoke to him in the same throaty soprano that never failed to send shivers down his spine.

'Bon martin 'Mon chevalier, are you feeling any better?'

'All the better for seeing you, but what's going on at the moment?'

Fleur shrugged, seemingly lost in how best to answer his question before she answered.'

'Total chaos, zat's what, last night ze aurors went on a series of raids of ze 'ome addresses of all ze death eaters whose bodies zey identified from ze graveyard. Zey arrested a few more 'angers on who weren't active death eaters but you might want to read zis, eet 'as all ze details.'

 _ **Dark Lord Returns! But Dies Very Quickly Afterwards**_

 _ **Professor Snape Vindicated**_

 _ **By Rita Skeeter**_

 _Yesterday evening in an extraordinary turn of events during the final task of the Triwizard tournament, Harry Potter was abducted by death eaters and was forced to watch as they used a dark potion to resurrect he who must not be named himself. However, quick action by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and his own actions and the heroic sacrifice of the now deceased Professor Snape enabled him to escape the scene with only minor injuries while he who must not be named was obliterated by the late Hogwarts Potions master and now confirmed double agent. Several high ranking death eaters who were previously cleared by the Wizenagmot at the end of the first war were also killed in the blast which local muggles are blaming on an unexploded bomb from the Second World War. Auror strike teams were quick to raid the homes of the deceased and arrested several more witches and wizards based on the information that was uncovered. Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge issued a statement resigning his post as Minister in a move that surprised few as the rumours of his involvement with the now late Lucius Malfoy and others among the deceased were becoming more substantiated. An emergency meeting of the Wizenagmot chose Amelia Bones as acting minister while preparations are made for fresh elections to choose a permanent replacement. Her first act with her new authority was to call for OM's to be awarded to both Harry Potter and a posthumous award for Professor Snape._

A further article inside the paper was just as unbelievable to Harry as he read.

 _ **Senior Cabinet Corrupt? How Deep Does the Rot Go?**_

 _ **By Rita Skeeter**_

 _In further news relating to the return of the dark lord and the corruption scandal in the upper echelons of the ministry of magic, serious power vacuums are expected to form as several of the dead at the graveyard or arrested in the aftermath were amongst the most notable among our government. Names such as McNair, Umbridge, Yaxley, Runcorn and Malfoy all commanded large amounts of prestige and all had influence at the Ministry and yet seemingly all stood to benefit from the return of our enemy. To what extent the corruption ran and what shall be done now it has been brought to light is still unclear but it is the hope of the Daily Prophet that an immediate enquiry is launched. No statement has yet been released on the details of each arrestee's involvement in the greater crime but will be published as soon as the information becomes available._

The article went on to speculate a lot on what the accused and the dead were responsible for and the possible implications for society if they hadn't been detected when they had been. It made for sobering reading as did a more articles which detailed a lot of Tom's early history which had been seemingly leaked by Dumbledore of all people and a man named Horace Slughorn.

'Well who would have thought it, Rita can sell more papers with the truth than horrible lies.'

'You taught her a valuable lesson zis year mon Chevalier, one zat she took to 'eart.'

Fleur sat down on his bed and pulled him close and whispered, 'ow do you feel, really?'

Harry sighed, 'I don't know, really, kind of numb. For four whole years I've had that homicidal snake doing his best to kill me, and Snape never leaving me in peace just because I am my father's son. Now all of a sudden they're both dead, I hardly know what to think now, let alone do.'

'Zat is good to 'ear. I would be worried if you didn't feel zat way. But now we 'ave our whole lives to find out.'

Madam Pomfrey bustled in and shooed Fleur off him though Harry could see the smirk in her eyes at Harry and Fleur's embarrassment before she checked him over. After pronouncing him fit she got a tray of breakfast for him promising him he could go after he'd eaten.

Fleur passed him a clean uniform and after he'd changed into it he led the way out

and to the Gryffindor common room, while the fat lady looked suspiciously at Fleur she did end up letting her in once Harry explained their relationship. Soon they were both inside the familiar space where his friends were waiting for them. Neville led them both to a couch, and asked.

'Are you ok Harry? We all would have come to see you this morning, but Dumbledore kept the whole school away from the hospital after I took your things around, he said you needed some peace and quiet.'

Harry sighed as he thought of all that had happened, 'its crazy that it's all over but what's supposed to happen now? Last thing we need is for some idiot to try and fill old snake faces shoes and start the whole business up again.'

Neville grimaced, 'no, but you've done enough mate. Let the adults do their jobs for once

Hermione moved to his other side.

'I doubt there's much anybody can do yet apart from clean up the mess and try and stop it happening again.'

Ron smirked, 'well with change at the ministry anything's possible, dad might even get promoted, finally, and Slytherin have been put in their place at long last, so not a bad result all around Harry.'

Harry frowned, 'Snape was a complete prat, we all know that but even he didn't deserve what happened to him, and all those others had familys too Ron even if they were death eaters. But still, hopefully we can finally end this idiotic gang feud, and we're going to need to sooner or later.'

Ron looked sceptical for a moment and clearly looked conflicted before he finally said, 'ok, ok, they aren't all like Malfoy and Parkinson but there's some people in that house who really can't be trusted.'

Neville grinned, 'the fact that you just admitted that is pretty good, Luna seems to be rubbing off on you.'

Ron smiled, 'That whole Loony personality, it's just an act, once you actually get past it she's incredible, I can't believe I never noticed it before.'

Fleur looked serenely at him and said, 'simple reason for zat is because you're a boy.'

Ron looked like he wanted to argue for a moment as everyone laughed but stayed silent as they all proceeded to try and keep their minds off what had happened and just try to act their ages. The last few days of term passed in relative calm throughout the halls of Hogwarts, the students whispering about what might be going on, some pausing as Harry passed them to stare at him, not that he cared much as he had seen it all before and this time the stares did not seem hostile. The Slytherins even began to lose some of their arrogance and snooty sense of superiority for the most part as the other houses slowly began to treat them with some level of respect. Some of them were even being seen openly associating with the other houses though Harry had yet to see a Slytherin at the Gryffindor table or vice versa nor had Pansy or Malfoy changed their ways one bit, though both looked subdued and hardly spoke to anybody outside their usual circle.

On Thursday afternoon they visited Hagrid who greeted them cheerfully as they approached his hut.

'Harry!' he said as he came up and hugged him, 'good to see you.'

When they got into his hut, it was obvious that somebody else had just left as there were two of Hagrid's bucket sized cups on the table and Harry could smell a lingering scent of perfume in the air.

'Bin havin a cuppa with Olympe, she's just left.'

'Who?' asked Ron?

'Madam Maxime, o course.'

'You two patched things up?' asked Neville

Fleur smiled at the byplay, amused that her headmistress had managed to find someone her own size to even have possible boyfriend troubles with in the first place.

'Dunno what yeh're talkin' about.' Said Hagrid as he fetched more cups and saucers and passed around biscuits before he asked Harry.

'You all righ'?'

Harry said, 'Yes.'

'No yeh're not, course not, but yeh will be.'

Hagrid told them of his thoughts about what was happening and about how he hoped things might finally begin to change for the better. He even shared a few anecdotes about his time at Hogwarts as a student, reminiscing about Tom Riddle.

'I always thought there was summat funny about him, oh he always seemed to follow the rules. But he always had the strangest calculating look in his eyes when he thought nobody was watching him.'

The days began to wind down towards the leaving feast and Harry's heart lurched as it meant Fleur's impending departure. On the night when Harry took his seat for the leaving feast noticing that the normal house banners in the great hall had been replaced by black drapes which he guessed were a mark of respect for Professor Snape. He was surprised to see Amelia Bones sitting at the staff table and was curious as to why she was there but put it out of his mind as Dumbledore began to speak.

'The end of another year, a year that has seen a great deal of change and the end of one of the most significant periods of history of the wizarding world. The Triwizard tournament was begun with the aims of fostering fellowship amongst young witches and wizards from different nations and now such bonds will become more important than ever.'

He paused as he gazed at the halls occupants, pausing on the students of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang before he continued.

'Every single witch and wizard in this hall shall be welcomed back as we all stand together to face the trial which has emerged, we have all been given a new chance, to forge a new world of opportunity. To finally put to bed years, indeed centuries of prejudice and build a better future for all.

Harry couldn't help but approve as Dumbledore spoke, but felt embarrassed a second later as he said.

'Before we begin our feast, the tournament must be concluded by the presentation of the trophy to our winner and I now call on the new interim minister for magic, Amelia Bones to present the cup to our winner, Harry James Potter.'

Harry felt his face burn as he felt himself being pushed out of his seat and began to walk forward slowly, again feeling the eyes of the hall on him as he walked to the staff table before he reached Amelia who came towards him smiling as he passed over the large trophy.

Harry raised it into the air as the occupants of the hall began to clap, before Dumbledore spoke again,

'Harry Potter fought against many things in the tournament and not just the dangers in the tasks, but also the suspicion and the hatred of many of the people in this room but despite this, he persevered and with all his bravery overcame all the trials he faced before finally going beyond the call of duty in standing against the enemy of the free peoples of this world. In doing so, he has demonstrated beyond measure, the qualities that befit Gryffindor house.

'But it was not only Harry Potter who was responsible for this new beginning, for we now must remember the brave Slytherin who gave his life to save us all. Severus Snape was a man who despite his grim upbringing and the choices he made in his earlier life sought to atone for his crimes and finally willingly sacrificed his own life for the son of his worst enemy. While he was hated by many of you, he still did what he could to spare you the worst of Voldemort's wrath and to teach the subject which was his lifelong passion. It is in his honour that the school board have universally decided to set up a prize for students gifted in the art of potions beginning next year.'

Dumbledore paused for a moment before he continued.

'For many centuries, the houses of Godric and Salazar have fought against each other in the belief that each was superior to the other, but this must stop for the prejudice has only created violence and centuries of hatred . Salazar in his way was as noble as Godric and if you all check the histories you will learn of his many triumphs. So for the sake of all who dwell in this world, the feud must end. I ask both houses to put aside your differences and learn to stand together as brothers and sisters in fellowship as the four founders once did.'

The school gave a standing ovation as he finished before he called for them to settle down as the feast began, many in the school were staring at him but Harry tried to ignore it and focussed on his meal and the beautiful witch sitting to his right.

The next day as the students from the three schools were preparing to depart for their destinations Fleur hurried over to him.

'Arry.'

Harry smiled warmly at Fleur who he had once thought of as snooty and arrogant before they had both changed so much, 'yes Fleur.'

Fleur smiled, 'I'm 'oping I can get some work 'ere in England for ze next few years, zat should at least allow me to visit 'Ogsmeade.'

Harry grinned, 'what a difference a year makes? If someone told me at the start of the year that all this was going to happen to us I would have said said they were crazier than Trelawney.'

Fleur's eyes bored into his and here face took on a determined expression, 'we veela don't need divination to find zere mates mon Chevalier'

Fleur pulled him into her arms and kissed him deeply, not caring about the audience all around them before drawing away and getting into the carriage.

'I'll see you at home my love,' Harry said as he watched the carriage ascend into the sky.

'Harry, are you going to be alright? You've really been through a lot this year.' Hermione asked him, interrupting him as he watched the carriage disappear into the horizon.

Harry was touched by her kindness but tried to be reassuring, 'it's alright, I might have gone through a lot but it's had advantages. Tom's gone, I'll never have to go near the Dursleys again, and now I've got hopefully three normal years of Hogwarts to look forward to with hardly any risk to life and limb. But what about you? Will you be ok?'

Hermione smiled warmly and leaned into him affectionately, 'yes, I think I will, anything can happen and now thing look like they're going to get better for everyone.'

When Harry and his friends had got a compartment on the train, talk was just turning to possibilities for the summer when the door opened and Pansy and Malfoy came in with some of their gang.

Pansy was the first to speak, 'you think you've won? You think now he's gone that you've all won your golden age and that we'll all just go away and die? Well you're wrong.'

Draco followed up, 'you murdered my father Potter and you're going to pay for that.'

With a flash of lights from all directions, the gang were all unconscious just as the twins came in and Fred began to speak just as he sat down with Hermione.

'Thought we'd drop by and check what was going on when he heard the noise of a rather upset puppy and a ferret with a temper nearby.'

George continued, 'you know, I never understood why they do this to themselves every year, surely they must have realised that coming in here and trying to preach pure blood rhetoric is dumb.'

'Too true, but they don't exactly enhance the décor so let's remove the rubbish.'

Fred and George along with Ron and Neville rolled the unconscious and badly hexed members of Malfoy and Pansy's gang into the hall and closed the door before resuming their seats.

The rest of the trip passed pleasantly enough and soon they stepped off the train, dressed as muggles and ready to begin the holidays. Making a sudden decision, Harry drew the Weasley twins aside and passed them the sack that had been inside the Triwizard cup and said to them.

'Take this, I don't want it, nor do I need it, use it and go build that shop of yours. I think you both need it more than I do.'

Fred tried to give it back, 'Harry no, it's yours you won it, we couldn't.'

Harry continued, 'if you won't take it as a gift, consider it an investment in your shop. If all your products are as good as what I've already seen, then I think you two would be a good investment and that money should give you enough to launch your business venture. A thousand galleons is pocket change for me, I'm rich in my own right and the Delacours are too, so Fleur and I won't need to worry about finance much.'

George grinned, 'wow, thank you Harry, we'll put this to good use, don't you worry.'

Fred added, 'you don't know how much this means to us, don't you worry, we'll use it wisely.'

Harry smiled as they both hugged him before they all joined the throng exiting the train and soon bade the Weasleys, Hermione and Neville goodbye before he found his way towards Alphonse and Apolline who were waiting with Gabrielle who let out a loud squeal and started babbling away in French as she caught sight of him.

Apolline enfolded him in her arms and kissed both his cheeks,

'Ready to go 'ome Mon garcon? Fleur should almost be ready to be collected by now.'

Harry grinned 'lead the way.'


End file.
